Hermione's Twilight
by Sarah Snape92
Summary: Hermione Granger is the new girl at Hogwarts School in Ottery St Catchpole, as she attempts to fit in, she meets the alluring Ron Weasley. Love, discovery and danger soom blossom. Harry Potter/Twilight RxH
1. Chapter 1

* * *

**First Sight**

**Ok so here is a story with a couple who I thought could fit really well into the Twilight mix! Enjoy! I do not own any of these characters, they are property of JK Rowling, and the storyline belongs to Stephenie Meyer!**

_I'd never given much thought to how I would die. But dying in the place of soemone I love seems lke a good way to go..._

I had never really fit in at school. People saw me only as the school swat, who was only worth talking to when in need of answers. I never had what you would call a best friend; people only used my friendship whenever they were in academic trouble, although I got on alright with the teachers, I knew that they only cared about the credit they were going to get when I left the school with the highest exam passes in the area. So, due to these causes of unhappiness, the fact that my eratic mother, Jane, had just remarried, and that I was nearly eighteen, I decided it was time for a change and that I would go and live with my dad, Sirius, for a while.

I've never had a bad relationship with my mother, we were always a good team. My mum was always the outgoing one who enjoyed life to the full by filling it with her crazy ideas ,which sometimes threw her into extreme consequences. I was the responsible one who would try and talk her out of them in the first place. I worried how she would cope when I was gone, her new husband Ludo seemed nice enough, but he didn't seem to have enough mental strength to keep up with my mother's fun loving attitude; sometimes it could be quite wearisome.

My mother was also very good at seeing straight to the heart of matters, a trait which I really wished she didn't have under the current circumstances...

"Now are you sure you still want to go my darling?"

"Yes mum, how many times do you want me to keep telling you? I'm absolutely certain of my decision."

"Well I'm not convinced! I know you Hermione Granger, you hate that scrubby little town of Ottery St Catchpole as much as I do, why on earth would you suddenly want to go and live there?!"

"Because I want to spend some time with dad, and I know how upset you get when you have to stay behind when Ludo's out doing the Quidditch league; without me at home you won't have to worry about staying."

"Oh but I still don't want you to go."

"I'm going mum, besides you'd have to get rid of me sooner or later, I'll be applying to college in the next year or so."

"Well I suppose you're right, just make sure you're father takes good care of you!"

I laughed as she planted another kiss on my cheek. It was very rare that my mother took on the act of the parent between the two of us, that was usually my job. But, as I fought back tears while the plane began to make its way down the runway leaving my beloved mother and my hometown, Oxford, behind, I was well aware that the place I was heading to wouldn't do much to liven my spirits...

* * *

"Hermione, hey sweet it's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too dad," he pulled me into a one armed hug, my suitcase already in his other hand.

The car journey was silent. Sirius was Superintendant of the Ottery St Catchpole police, so we were travelling in his own personal police car, something I always hated whenever I had come to stay. I hadn't in fact been to stay with my dad for three years now, so an awful lot of memories came to light when we drove through the never changing town to my new home.

It only took one journey to deposit all my posessons in my new bedroom, most of which were books. Sirius had decorated it purple in the hope that it would make it look more homely. I shyly thanked him and he left me to it, that's one of the best things about my dad, he's not the kind of parent who hovers.

As I was sorting all my new school books into my bag for that dreaded first day which would take place tomorrow, I heard a horn beeping, and followed Sirius outside to see what it was.

"Good engine, I've never had any problems with it myself," I heard a familiar voice say.

"I'm sure she'll love it," replied Sirius, turning to face me as I approached, "Hey Hermione you remember James Potter and his son Harry."

I looked at the tall jet black haired man stood beside Sirius with round glasses perched on top of his long nose, he smiled at me.

"Hi Hermione, you've grown a lot since I last saw you."

I smiled and shook his hand, "you're looking good too," I commented.

"Oh I'm still out there," he grinned, "with any luck my boy will be joining me soon," he patted Harry's shoulder, who grimaced.

"Dad you know I'm not into all that nightlife and stuff,"

"Who said I was talking about you?" replied James, "I meant my boy Sirius here," he slung his arm round Sirius' shoulder who immediately began to twist James' arm.

Harry and I laughed and he shyly approached me.

"Hi, I'm Harry, we used to play together when we were little."

"Yeah I remember," I smiled, shaking his hand. He was completley identical to his father, apart from his green eyes, which I guessed he must have inherited from his mother, who I remember sadly died not long after she gave birth to Harry.

Sirius began patting the big red truck which I'd only just noticed, whilst looking at me expectantly.

"What do you think?"

I glanced at it confused.

Sirius elaborated, "it's your homecoming present, just bought it off James here."

Confusion was replaced with gratitude.

"Really?" I asked, gazing at it in awe. It was old and rusty, with a body that looked capable of crushing a couple of cars in an accident and coming out completely undamaged.

"Absolutley, its yours," said James grinning.

"Oh my gosh thankyou!" I exclaimed, I clambered into the driver's seat while Harry sat next to me and showed me how the truck worked. Inspiration suddenly struck me.

"Would you like to ride to school with me? Then you'll be able to keep an eye on whether or not I drive this thing properly."

Harry looked at me apologetically.

"I go to school on the other side of town," he said.

"Oh ok, that's a shame; it would've been nice to know one person."

Harry smiled at me. "I'm sure you won't have a problem making friends,"

I blushed a bit and then proceeded to ask how the clutch worked.

* * *

The drive to school was wet and muddy, a typical day in Ottery St Catchpole. As I drove into the parking lot of Hogwarts School I thought my heart was going to jump out of body. _Don't panic, no-one is staring at you, and even if they are it's only because they've never seen you before. Come on, this is supposed to be a new start, get a grip! _

I parked my truck and then followed the directions to the main office, where I was presented with a timetable and a map of the school. Gazing at a my timetable, I made my way into the building when a boy interupted my focus.

"Hey, you're the new girl right?"

"Yes, I'm Hermione," I replied cautiously, waiting for the sarcastic comment.

But he seemed quite friendly.

"My name's Neville and I am the eyes and ears of this place, anything you need I'm here to supply. By the way I'm also head of the school newspaper and you're news Hermione, big news!"

I froze.

"What!" I looked at his round face in the hope that he was joking, he wasn't. "Please, please don't, I mean I would really rather you didn't, I'm more of the suffer in silence type of character."

"Oh ok, no feature," he said agreably, and that was it. I had a feeling I might like this person.

One of the worst lessons I had to have on my first day of school was Gym. The one subject where books could not save me, and it was a disaster.

"Ow!" shouted a boy whose head had just been bashed in by the volleyball I had accidently hit in his direction.

"Oh, I'm so so sorry!" I ran over to him, "are you okay? I told them not to let me play, I'm really not very good at sports..."

He payed no attention, but just continued to gaze into my brown eyes.

I looked down, he seemed to remember himself.

"Oh no, don't worry about it, happens all the time. You're the new girl Hermione Granger aren't you?" he spoke with a strong irish accent.

I nodded.

"I'm Seamus, Seamus Finnagin."

"Nice to meet you," I said

At this point a girl who I'd been playing volleyball with came running over.

"She's quite something isn't she Seamus?" she turned to me, "I'm Parvati Patil."

"Hi, I'm Hermione."

"Like I don't know, the whole school's been talking about your arrival for ages."

Great, just what I wanted to hear.

* * *

Lunch was a rather playful affair amongst the males sitting at our table. Parvati couldn't seem to understand the amount of attention I was getting; neither could I.

"You're like the shiny new toy," she commented, rather sourly I thought.

Suddenly a camera flashed in my face.

"Sorry," said a soft voice whose face came into focus when the flash was out of my eyes, "It's for the feature."

"There isn't a feature anymore Padma, " said Neville sternly, "don't bring it up again."

Padma sat down next to Parvati, and instantly I knew that they must be twins.

"This is my sister Padma," confirmed Parvati.

"Hi," we both said in unison, Padma looking slightly miffed that her feature had been scrapped. Although I didn't feel too guilty about it. I turned my head to look around the canteen when my gaze fell on a group of people making their way into the already crowded lunchroom. There were five of them: four boys and one girl, all of whom were redheaded, and all with a rather stern expression on their faces.

But these were not the reasons why I suddenly found I couldn't look away.

The last boy who entered the room, who appeared to be the lankiest and the most moody looking, held my attention like no other person had ever done in my entire life. His posture was so smooth, and his handsome features shone through the grim expression on his face, I couldn't tear my eyes off him; he was undoubtedy the most handsome person I had ever set eyes on.

Without thinking I blurted out an inquiry as to who they were, without moving my focus on the youngest boy.

Parvati saw who I was staring at and stifled a giggle.

"Oh, they're the Weasley's," she exclaimed, "They live with their mum and dad some way out of Ottery St Catchpole, the eldest one is Percy, the two twins are called Fred and George, the girl's called Ginny, and the boy you're staring at is called Ron."

I blushed and dragged my eyes away from Ron Weasley to look at Parvati and Padma.

"Don't feel embarrased," said Parvati smililing, " He's gorgeous, I understand that. But a word of advice, he doesn't date. Apparently nobody here's good enough for him! But- not that I care or anything!" she said a little bit hysterically, I wondered when Ron Weasley had turned her down.

I glanced back over towards the Weasleys, who were now sat a table across the other side of the room; my gaze locked on Ron, who's eyes made contact with my own, instantly prompting me to blush and look down.

* * *

Seamus escorted me to our last lesson of the day- Biology. I hoped he wasn't going to feel the need to make himself my personal chaperone, I had a feeling I would snap at him if he did, and I didn't want to do that.

As I made my way towards the teacher, I spotted Ron Weasley sat at a desk in the middle of the room; once again I was drawn in by his attractive face, until he looked at me with an expression so fierce, it frightened me.

Mr Snape welcomed me to the lesson and then gestured to the only available seat in the room, which just happened to be next to Ron Weasley. I took a deep breath and made my way over to the desk. Ron flinched and positioned his stool as far away from me as I sat down, actions that I abruptly noticed and caused me to feel miserable, as I was reminded of the way my former fellow students acted back in Oxford.

The lesson proceeded with the uncomfortable distance and death glares Ron kept shooting me from his side of the desk. At one point I reacted and shot a really filthly look back in his direction, causing a flicker of suprise to appear across his freckled face. _Good, give him a taste of his own medicine, _I thought savagely.

When the bell rang signalling the end of the day, Ron Weasley was up and out of the room before anyone else had even left their seat. I stared after him in shock and wonder; what on earth had I done to provoke such a hateful attitude? I racked my brains desperately for any hurt I may have unintentionally caused, but I knew I'd done nothing. Maybe he treated everyone that way...

Seamus came sauntering over to where I was still sat, absorbed in thought.

"Hey, I didn't know you were so smart, you answered every single one of Mr Snape's questions, you're gonna give Weasley a run for his money. Talking of which, did something happen between you two? Only I've never seen him look at someone with so much hate before."

Annoyance flared, Ron had reduced me to a nervous wreck this afternoon, and I hadn't even done anything to deserve it. Flinging my heavy bag over my shoulder, I began to make my way to the main office, where I had been informed to go at the end of the school day. Bidding farewell to Seamus, who of course felt it necessary to accompany me, I entered the office and immediately fought the urge to shout, cry and run away as I saw who was in there.

"But there must be somewhere available, physics, chemistry!" Ron Weasly was saying impatiently, his back to me.

"I'm sorry, there isn't dear," replied the secretary, "I'm afraid you're going to have to stay in Biology for the time being."

"Fine!" he muttered indignantly, turning and seeing that I was there, "looks like I'll just have to endure it!"

He threw me a nasty look as he stormed out of the office. I edged forward and informed the secretary of my trouble free day as far as she was concerned, and then headed out towards my truck.

_Well, if that's how he wants to treat me, fine! He's chosen to mess with the wrong person! _I thought indignantly as I revved the engine and drove out of school.

And to think I found him undyingly handsome and attractive!


	2. Chapter 2

**Confrontation**

**Here is chapter 2!**

"So sweetheart, how was your first day at school?"

"Oh it was good,"

"Were people nice? I know how nervous you were about starting a new school so far into the year."

"Yes I was, but as a matter of fact the students are all very welcoming, they really seem to have given up their time to make me feel comfortable," Seamus' face suddenly sprang to mind, and I smiled to myself; although Jane, currently on the other end of the phone line, was oblivious.

"So does it look like I can persuade you to move back home?" she asked hopefully.

I laughed.

"Mum, stop throwing me in the way of temptation, I'm doing fine here."

Luckily I was a pretty convincing liar, so Jane just sighed and proceeded to ask me what I was up to.

"I have homework that's in need of being done," I reminded her curtly, she knew how stressed I got if I was not up to date with my work.

"Oh ok then," she said promptly, "I'll ring you tomorrow sweet, and try not to tear your hair out about bloody homework," she laughed, "it's not worth the amount of stress you have over it. Hey, did you know that stress can reduce your life for up to twenty years!"

Knowing full well she was exaggerating in an attempt to sound shockingly dramatic, I merely nodded and said my farewells.

"Later hun! Love you lots," Jane replied in her consistent chirpy voice.

"Love you too mum."

* * *

Later that night I found myself tossing and turning in bed, unable to settle down. But my mind was at work; I was constructing exactly what I was going to say when I confronted Ron Weasley about his behaviour in Biology tommorow. And boy was I having fun doing it!

* * *

Rain spattered around us as we stood in the parking lot waiting for the bell to go. I was leaning against my truck, completely absorbed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, whilst at the same time keeping an eye out for the arrival of the Weasley family.

I had no idea what sort of car they drove to school in, so it didn't overly suprise me when I happened to glance up and see them walking towards the school building: The elder one, the two twins and the girl; hang on a minute, that's all there was; where was he?

Seeing me staring at them, the current four all turned their heads towards me with rather knowing expressions on their faces. I looked away just as the bell went, and began making my way to my first lesson, trying to calm the worry that had started to bubble in my stomach: was I the reason that he was not here?

The day dragged on in a similar pattern as to the one before; I had a feeling school was going to become quite a repetetive process, but that didn't bother me too much. What annoyingly bothered me, as I walked nervously into Biology, was the instinctive certainty that _I_ was the reason for Ron Weasley's abscene in school today.

* * *

And for the remainder of the week. Everytime his family saw me they continued to look at me with the same knowing gaze that patronised me to the very core. Do they think I deliberately drove their brother out of school for the last week?! I'm guessing that they aren't aware of how foul and horrible he is to those around him!

It is a well known fact that wet slippery surfaces do absolutely nothing to aid one's coordination when trying to walk upon them. This was confirmed for me when I went flying down the porch steps as I was heading towards my truck.

"Whoa Hermione!" said Sirius, who came sliding over to catch me; unfortunately, he wasn't very quick off the mark, as I was already lying flat on my backside.

"It's alright dad," I said as he helped to pull me up, "Wet surfaces don't do much when it comes to helping my balance."

"Y'alright kiddo?"

"Yes I'm fine," I assured him. I brushed my damp jeans in an attempt to rid some of the mud off them, and began loading my school bag into my truck.

"Oh Hermione," Sirius turned back to me as he opened the door to his police car.

"Yes dad."

"Don't go hanging round near the woods for the time being; there's been some rather serious accidents going on around there,"

"Ok, no problem. How serious were the accidents?"

"Well, everybody who was involved in them died," said Sirius bluntly; he looked at me very sternly.

"I won't go anywhere near the woods dad, I promise," I said reassuringly.

He nodded, "Okey dokey then, I'd best be heading off. Have a good day Hermione, drive safely."

"Bye dad," I waved him off, and then began to make my own steady journey to school, where the rain was still coming down in bullets, and continued to do so for the rest of the morning.

* * *

As I walked with Pavarti and Padma into the canteen, my eyes immediately registered the presence of five red headed people at the table where the Weasley's were sitting. My heart leapt into my throat, and I hurried towards my friends' table without even glancing to see if he was throwing death looks at me.

All through the remainder of lunch there was an internal battle happening within me: A suprisingly huge part of me was restraining the urge to storm over to his table and demand to know why he was so mean to me last week, while the other part was panicking and trying to work up ways I could skive off Biology. In the end, the more dominant part-the part that had waited all week to confront him- made my final decision, and I headed over to Biology.

I payed as little attention as I could towards him as I sat down and began sorting the necessary books into a neat pile. But my random moment of OCD was interuppted when a I heard a gruff voice acknowledge me.

"Hello, My name's Ron Weasley, don't think I had a chance to introduce myself last week, you're Hermione Granger?"

I simply nodded. I was scorned by the way he made it sound like any actions on his part hadn't prevented him from attempting to introduce himself last week.

"Onion root!" shouted Mr Snape once the rest of the class had quietened down, "today, we will be analysing and defining the properties of this fascinating herb! I want you all to work in pairs, and the first pair to complete the task will be presented with a big bar of Cadbury's Milk chocolate!" he looked pointedly in mine and Ron Weasley's direction, me having established myself as the new brains of the class, I couldn't help but assume he'd bought the chocolate with me in mind, as it happened to be my very favourite.

Once Mr Snape had set the class off with the task in hand, Ron pushed the microsope we would be using towards me.

"Ladies first," he said sarcastically.

"Just because I'm a girl, don't assume that I'm going to be the only one doing this experiment!" I retorted, "this is supposed to be a team effort, so you are going to help!"

Ron laughed, and just looked at me with an I'd-like-to-see-you-try expression written across his face.

I couldn't describle the anger that seethed within me as I looked at his arrogant and irritatingly good looking features, which somehow still seemed to hold my attention in a way nothing else had ever done before.

"You _will_ help!" I told him severely, and I began to insert the first plate of onion root into onto the magnifying glass.

"Excuse me, what makes you think I'm going to?" replied Ron mockingly, " sounds like you've got enough brains to fill this entire room, surely you don't need my highly adapted one too?"

"_Your_ brain would only be useful if I ever wanted to measure the size of your abnormally big ego," I replied without looking up.

"Ouch," said Ron; he pulled the piece of paper on which we were to write our results towards him, "want me to write?"

"Only if you think you can handle it," I said sarcastically.

"Take that as a yes then," he began to doodle absent mindly on the corners of the page, waiting expectantly for me to present him with the first answer.

I looked up cheerfully when I had it figured out.

"Anaphase," I said.

Before writing it down, Ron asked: "Mind if I check?"

"Thought you didn't want to help," I stated simply, but I didn't prevent him from looking for himself; I knew he was hoping that I would be wrong, and I felt a sense of smugness when he removed his eye from the microscope and wrote down the word "Anaphase" whilst muttering it under his breath.

"Like I said," I answered in response to his mumbling.

"I'm doing the next one," he said grumpily.

After a few minutes of checking the next slide he looked back up and informed me it was "Prophase".

"Mind if I check?" I asked, repeating his question.

He shrugged and I glanced into the microscope, and saw what definetley confirmed as "Prophase".

He was looking at me expectantly again when I glanced back up.

"It's prophase," I confirmed.

"Like I said," he smiled and jotted it down while I arranged the next slide. We continued like this for the remainder of the lesson; Ron actually appeared to be rather intelligent, so we worked well as a team, although it was something neither of us could admit to.

We were finished before everyone else in the class, so that meant there was nothing much we could do but try not to make sarcastic comments to each other; and also, in my case, attempt to keep my attention focused away from his beautiful face. Ugh! Can't even believe I'm describing him in that way! _But his personality certainly doesn't exist in the same league as his looks, _I thought to myself. However,I was suddenly dragged out of my reverie by Ron's decidedly irritating voice.

"Why'd you move here?"

"Sorry?" I said, suprised.

"Why. Did. You. Move. Here?" he asked dumbly.

"Shut up! I understood exactly what you said. I moved here so I could spend some time with my father."

"Ahh Sirius Granger, I quite like him."

"Well that's nice to know." I muttered, suprised that he actually appeared to like _somebody_.

"But you don't seem to be very happy here," Ron commented, "Do you not like it?"

"I've only been here just over a week! So I'm still getting used to being away from home and my mother," I could not believe I had just said that to him.

"Oh," he replied. I waited for the spiteful remark to come. But it didn't. Instead, Ron just looked at me with a rather curious expression on his face; there was no way I could look away now. For a few seconds, we were completley absorbed in each other's eyes...

But it was only a few _very _short seconds.; we quickly averted our eyes away from each other, both of us muttering under our breath.

After being told what we had both already figured, Mr Snape presented us with the award winning chocolate. Ron just looked at it sourly and thrust the the entire bar towards me.

"You don't want any?" I said, suprised.

"Nah, you have it," he said dismissively.

"Now that's a suprise," I mumbled, shoving the bar in my bag.

Ron shot me a dirty look which I returned, just as the bell went; and just like last week, he was first out of the room like a gust of wind.

* * *

I took my time about heading outside. Rain was still plummeting down hard, and I stupidly hadn't thought to bring my anorak. So, by the time I did eventually make it to my truck, my hair and clothes were a sopping mess; I fumbled for my key and jumped quickly as I could into the cab. It was lovely and warm in there, so I turned the heater on and let my hair fan out; it would go all frizzy now.

I was completley unaware of the people heading for their cars around me; it had been a stressful and frustrating day and I was eager to get back to Sirius'. As I pressed down on the accelarator and began to manouvere my way out of the busy parking lot, I noticed somebody watching me. That somebody wasn't too hard to make out: he had bright red hair which was plastered on top of his head as he stood by his car, and continued to watch me struggle my way out of the lot. As I carried on doing so, I caught sight of him laughing at my pitiful attempts to reverse out ofmy space. I revved my engine and my hand edged towards pulling the clutch into reverse; the temptation to squash both him and his silly little Ford Anglia was almost too apealling. But instead, I pushed forward on the accelarator, and departed the parking lot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Saved**

**Ok so here is chappie 3! for anyone who may not have already figured, Hermione is a muggle and you will find out what Ron is in this chapter. Enjoy!**

The rest of the week continued to drag on with a gloomy attitude; but school was starting to become a rather more pleasurable experience- save for the behaviour of one particular person whom I sat next to in Biology...

"Ron! What are you doing? You'll end up taking someone's eye out if you keep brandishing that hot poker around!"

"Well why don't _you_ do it then if you're so clever! Snape said you had to wave it to increase the number of sparks! That's exactly what I've been doing!"

"No it isn't," I said taking the poker forcefully off him, "You've got to do it in a way that will create a constant speed! _You_ looked like you were having a fight with an invisible gladiator!"

"Whatever!" he snapped, folding his arms, "come on, if you think you're gonna be so good at waving that thing, get on and do it!"

I pulled a face at him and then began to slowly move the poker from side to side with steady and sure movements. However, I was finding it quite difficult to concentrate; Ron was stood directly in front of me with his eyes fixed on my face. I had to admit, I was really struggling against the annoying temptation to lose myself in his deep brown eyes, and at the same time charge at him aimed with the steaming hot poker! This astounded me; how on earth was I feeling such contrasting emotions?

"Hey was that a spark?" said Seamus, who was also watching me from the other end of the room.

I dragged my concentration back to moving the poker. _Left Right Left Right Left Right..._

"Sparks!" shouted Lavender Brown excitedly; the whole class immediately abandoned what they were doing and began to hustle around me and the poker, from which sparks were indeed begnning to flourish.

"Gracious!" announced Mr Snape jubilantly, "Well done Miss Granger, that is absolutely spot on!"

I deliberately flashed a mockingly sweet smile in Ron's direction, who retorted by pulling a face and moving away from the crowd and into the corner of the room. I had to admit, triumph did taste good!

* * *

"So do you reckon he's gonna ask you?"

"I don't know...he just seems completely smitten with Hermione at the moment,"

"Yeah but you can tell that Hermione doesn't like him in that way,"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Course I am. Look here she comes, you can ask her now."

"Ask me what?" I asked curiously, as I approached Parvati and Padma, who were huddled under the canteen shelter, out of the rain.

"Whether or not you like Seamus," said Padma quickly; Parvati threw her an evil glance.

"Well..." I said slowly "Of course I _like_ him, but I-"

"Oh so then you do!" said Parvati hysterically.

"Well yeah course I do," I replied, a little confused, "I mean he's very friendly and an extremely generous person."

"Oh," mumbled Parvati sadly, "I hope you'll be very happy together then."

"What!" I yelped, completley confused as to where the conversation had headed now.

"You and Seamus!" said Parvati astoundingly, "you just said you liked him!"

"Well yes I do," I replied slowly, and then I caught up, "Surely you don't think I fancy him!"

"What, you mean you don't?" said Parvati hopefully.

"Absolutely not; he's my friend, nothing more," I assured her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry then," she replied, "I must have confused you a bit."

"No it's fine," I shrugged, "So were you talking about Seamus before I came over?"

"Yeah," said Padma, "Parvati's hoping he might ask her to the Summer Ball."

"You're arranging things fot that already?" I asked, astounded.

"Yes," said Parvati, "and I'm kinda hoping Seamus might ask me... um, do you reckon you could talk to him about it Hermione? Maybe, see whether or not he likes me?"

"Yeah sure I can try," I said to her.

"You will? Oh thankyou Hermione!" she gave me a hug.

"I can't promise that he 'll speak to me though," I warned her. I glanced at my watch, "Oh I'd better be off, Sirius'll be home soon."

"Ok then see you tomorrow!" waved Parvati and Padma cheerfully.

I made my way to my truck; the rain appeared to have laid off for the time being. The parking lot was virtually empty, apart from the presence of somebody I noticed walking behind me.

It was Ron Weasley. He didn't say anything to me, just continued walking with that permanent frown etched across his face. I turned my nose up and increased my pace across the lot; climbing into my truck, I started the engine and turned out of the school without even permitting myself to glance at him.

* * *

"Morning kiddo! What's the matter with you? Fancied a lie in this morning? School's just about to start."

"What!" I leapt out of bed and nearly collided with Sirius, who was bent over chuckling.

"Not funny dad!" I said indignantly as I looked at my clock, and saw that I had in fact an hour before school started.

"I know, sorry sweet, it was worth it to see your face though!" he giggled.

"You are such a child dad," I commented.

"Thanks," he said chirpily. Sometimes it suprised me how Sirius and Jane could possibly have split up; they were so similar in almost every way! But then, perhaps maybe a little too similar.

"Anyway kid, I've put some snow chains onto the tyres of y'er truck, there's an awful lot of ice on the roads today, and I don't want you taking a spin."

"Thanks dad," I gave him a hug, "would you mind departing my room so that I can get ready?"

"Course," he grunted and left me to get dressed.

Fourty minutes later, I was treading with extreme caution across the heavily thick ice to my truck. I noticed the sparkling new snow chains attached to the wheels; they looked really out of place on something as ancient as my truck. Despite having them, I drove exceedingly carefully to school, and immediately turned off the radio when a report came on about a van that had capsized due to the ice, that was not the kind of thing I wanted to hear whilst I was driving on this dangerous element as well.

School was fairly busy when I arrived. I saw Neville standing at the entrance to the main building and waved to him; he saw me and cheerfully returned the gesture.

I flung my schoolbag over my shoulder, and as I began to make my way towards the building, several things seemed to happen simultaneously:

I caught sight of Ron Weasley, who was leaning against his car and staring straight at me.

There was a sudden screeching of tyres which sounded frightengly close to where I was walking.

As I turned to look at the source of noise, I threw myself back against my truck as a big blue van came hurtling directly towards me.

Next thing I felt was a sharp impact as my head collided with the hard, ice smothered ground while somebody had hold of my body and lifted me away from the heavy truck which was destined to crush me. I spotted the bright red crop of hair- it was Ron Weasley.

The van had not yet come to a full stop and came flying back round to where Ron and I were lying across the ground, Ron's arm was held tight around my waist, and, without letting go of me, he flung me around with only himself as the barrier between me and the van, whilst pulling out of his pocket, a small wooden stick with a slight bend in the middle. He held it up, pointed it towards the van, and said calmly: _"Petrificus Totalus!"_

The van immediately froze.

For a few seconds, I just lay on my front while Ron quickly stuffed the stick back into his pocket. His arm was still wrapped around me, pinning me against him. I started to shuffle, and he swiftly removed his arm. I didn't make any effort to stand up though, I just stared at him in awe.

"H-how did you do that?" I asked shakily.

"Do what?" he asked sternly.

Realising that the ground was getting too cold, I tried to sit up; but Ron pushed me gently back down.

"Don't get up, you sounded like you hit your head pretty hard, just lie still."

"I'm fine," I said dismissively. I asked him again, "how did you do that?"

"Do what?" he repeated.

"Stop the van," I said, "you did it by waving that wooden stick and saying a couple of words in latin! And by the way, how on earth did you get over to me so fast?"

Ron didn't say anything at first, he just looked at me with a really serious expression on his face.

"Hermione, you hit your head pretty hard; you didn't see anything clearly."

"Yes I did see clearly!" I hissed, "I saw everything clearly. You were pulling me out of the way after three seconds of me seeing you across the other side of the lot! And then you waved that wooden stick and said what sounded like some kind of magic spell!"

At these words Ron's face became exceptionally grave. But by now the rest of the school were attempting to squeeze through the gap between my truck and the van to see who had been hurt, and neither of us could say much more.

"I'm so sorry Hermione!" shouted a panic stricken Dean Thomas who was leaning out the window of his blue van, blood dripping down his face.

"Oh my goodness Dean you're hurt!" I squealed, attempting to get up and help him, but Ron forced me back on the ground.

"But it's cold!" I complained, and a smile flickered across his face.

Dean continued to apologise all through the time it took for the teachers to come down and make a gap big enough for me and Ron to clamber out between the vehicles. Unfortunately, it was Dean's van that had obtained the most damage;my truck remained as impenetrable as ever.

"Are you okay Miss Granger?" asked Miss McGonagall worriedly.

"Yes I'm fine," I said, attempting to move out of the way so that Dean could be brought out.

"She hit her head," said Ron coolly, I shot him a death glance, "I think she might need it checking over."

* * *

So an ambulance was called, and Dean, Ron and I were all carted off to Accidents and Emergencies, where strangely enough only Dean and I were ordered to be pushed on strechers, while Ron strolled whistling alongside.

"Arrogant git," I mumbled under my breath. He gave me a sarcastic smile.

Naturally the police were called about the incident, and my dad decided to make the most of his authority by walking into the treatment room, and immediately stripping Dean Thomas of his driving license.

"I'm so sorry Hermione," he said miserably after my assertive father had given him a set down.

"Dad you don't need to take his driving license away, that's completley unecessary!" I complained.

"Hey, I make the rules kiddo, and you could've easily have been killed, you know that!"

"Yes," I said calmly, "but I wasn't, so I don't understand why you're choosing to act so irrationally; it was an accident."

My argument didn't have much effect. But at least the doctors saw no reasons to keep further hold of me ( my head turned out to be perfectly fine!), Sirius and I began to make our way out of the hospital.

"Oh, you should probably call your mother," he said guiltily, as we headed down a set of stairs.

"You told mum!" I said indignantly.

Sirius shrugged.

"Oh great," I muttered, "no doubt she's just freaking out right now!"

"Sorry kid," he mumbled, "but I didn't know what was wrong with you until I got here!"

I shot him an annoyed expression, and Sirius continued to trail sheepishly behind me for the remainder of the way. But then I spotted Ron, his sister, and a red headed man who could only be his father, stood at the end of a corridor, whispering anxiously. I came to a sudden halt. Ron had cleverly vanished whilst Dean and I had been taken into the treatment room; but I desperately needed to talk to him.

"What is it kiddo?" asked Sirius, curiously eyeing the three Weasleys.

"Um, I just need to speak to someone for a minute, it's about schoolwork," I muttered quietly.

"Oh," said Sirius, "but you don't need to worry about stuff like that right now Hermione, you've just been through a traumatic experience!"

"Yes, as you can see I'm in a severe state of shock," I said sarcastically.

Sirius grunted.

"Please dad, I'll only be a few minutes. You carry on, and I'll meet you outside."

Sirius sighed, and then, making it very clear of his unwillingness, made his way down the next flight of stairs.

The Weasley's had not noticed my presence yet. So I headed a bit further down the corridor towards them, and cleared my throat.

Their heads all whipped round to face me.

"Um, is it okay if I have a quick word with Ron please," I asked nervously.

"Of course," replied his father in a warm, chirpy voice, "we'll just be in my office Ron, come along Ginny,"

Ginny smiled shyly at me as she was wheeled off by her father; Ron walked a few paces towards me with a grim expression.

"You know hospitals are _supposed_ to be places of peace and tranquility, so maybe this is not the best place for us to start having a conversation," he said casually.

"Don't worry," I said sternly, "you know exactly what I'm about to ask you, and I doubt it's something you'll want to inform the whole hospital of."

"Are you still not getting the message that it's not even something I want to inform you of?"

"I _saw_ what happened!" I said indignantly, "and I want to know why!"

"Why?!" muttered Ron furiously, "why is it _so _important for _you_ to know?"

"Because I want to be aware of the reason why I'm going to have to lie when everybody asks me about it tomorrow!"

Ron's face went from a look of annoyance to an expression of suprise.

"What?" he said quietly, "you're tellng me you're not gonna blab to everyone your amazing theory as to how I stopped that van!"

"No," I replied earnestly, "I am not that shallow! If you don't want me to tell anyone, then I won't."

"Doesn't mean I'm still gonna tell you though!" he snapped, "I reckon you need to go back and get your head re scanned."

"My head is perfectly fine!" I shouted, "I know what I saw! You came over to me like a flash of light, and then you froze the van by pulling out a wooden stick and brandishing it!"

"I can't believe I'm hearing this!" laughed Ron; he was mocking me. I snapped.

"DON'T YOU DARE MOCK ME RONALD WEASLEY! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I SAW, AND IF YOU WON'T TELL ME, I'LL FIND OUT FOR MYSELF!"

"OH WILL YOU?!" he challenged, "YOU DO THAT THEN! CAUSE YOU'RE CERTAINLY NOT GETTING ANY HELP FROM ME! I DON'T CONVERSE WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE MAD IDEAS IN THEIR HEADS!"

I pulled my hand back and slapped him hard across the face. He buckled just as a nurse came hurrying round the corner in search of the noise.

"You two!" she hissed furiously at us, "get out of this hospital this instant! How dare you pollute the atmosphere of those who have come here for healing!" Out NOW!"

We rushed past her and began hurrying down the nearby stairs, Ron winced as he touched the red spot on his cheek.

"Told you this wasn't the right place for us to start a conversation!" he spat at me, as we made our way downstairs, "dad'll kill me for losing my temper in the place where he works!"

"Well if you'd bothered to cooperate for once in a while, and given me an answer to my question, none of that would've happened!"

"It's none of your business!" he said through gritted teeth.

"It is if it means I'm going to have to lie to people about it!" I said in a frustrated voice.

"You know, I don't think I've had a single word of thanks seeing as I bloody well saved your life!" he said, quickly changing the subject.

"Thankyou," I said, overwhelmed with a sudden ounce of guilt. I had hardly taken into account that a person I hated so much had put their own life at risk in order to save mine.

Ron paused just inside the main hospital entrance and looked at me, scrutinising.

"You're welcome," he mumbled; but he saw the expression on my face, "you're not gonna let this go are you?"

"No," I replied, unable to look anywhere but into his eyes.

"Then I hope you enjoy disappointment," he turned away from me to open the door.

"You know what gets me wondering?" I said quickly to him.

"What?" he looked back at me.

"Why did you even bother?" I said.

Ron stared at me for a few minutes, then moved his gaze to the floor.

"I don't know," he mumbled, although it sounded like he was talking more to himself than to me.

He then made his way out through the door, and that was the first night I dreamt of Ron Weasley.


	4. Chapter 4

**Suspicion**

**Chappie 4! **

I sat bolt upright. The dream had been so vivid, almost as if he had been stood in my room with me; I shook my head vigorously in an attempt to gain consciousness quicker, and glanced at my clock: 2:55. _Great, _I thought miserably. Now I had little chance of getting back to sleep, my body was beginning to wake up and my head was in a tizzy due to Ron Weasley being stuck in it! _Damn him! _I was full of annoyance. But, as I layed my head back onto my soft, warm pillows in the hope that sleep might reclaim me, I felt a twinge of regret that I hadn't been able to stay with him, contained within my dream...

Sirius obviously thought that my head was causing me real bother after I exited the hospital in a clear state of frustration yesterday, which was why he was feeling the need to carry out parental duties which would only be seen fit for an eight year-old.

"Here you are sweet," he said tenderly, placing a tray of cereal onto my bedside table with a glass of orange juice the following morning.

"Thanks dad."

"How're you feeling?" he asked, his face full of concern, "You sure y'eh feeling well enough to go to school today?"

"Yes dad I'm fine," I said quickly, taking my breakfast and shovvelling it into my mouth.

"Are y'eh sure y'eh sure? Only you've got a pair of rather distinctive bags under those eyes, not up at all in the night were y'eh?"

"Thanks for pointing that out dad," I said ignoring his last question and climbing out of bed in the direction of my mirror.

"Argh, they really are quite distinct aren't they?"

Sirius chuckled.

I looked at him in the background of my mirror: "Thankyou for your concern dad, but I _am_ going to go to school today," I saw his face fall slightly when I finished my sentence. I felt a bit guilty, he was only trying to help, but school was school, and there was absolutely no way I was going to miss it if I were still in a perfectly fit state to go. So, after dragging a brush through my exceedingly bushy hair, I grabbed my bag of toiletries and disappeared into the bathroom.

* * *

I was lucky enough to even be able to drive my truck to school this morning, after Sirius had practically ordered me to get in the back of his police car! But, fortunately, he had a call from the station about a robbery which was taking place on the other side of town, and with that he jumped into his car and was off in a cloud of exhaust smoke, and a honk of farewell on his horn, completely forgetting about his insistent attitude on driving me to school.

I was dreading the atmosphere when I arrived in the parking lot; and it was probably worse than I imagined when I got out of my truck and heard Seamus leading a fan march across the lot towards me.

"Look at you eh," he said gleefully when he, Parvati, Padma, Neville, Lavender Brown and Ernie Macmillan were all crowded round me, "you're alive!"

"Yes I'm absolutely fine," I assured them all.

"Oh we were so worried about you Hermione!" said Parvati, "was everything alright at the hospital? You haven't got some kind of severe brain damage have you?"

"No Parvati, my head's still perfectly intact."

"Thanks to Ron Weasley," chirped Ernie Macmillan, "I didn't even see him stood anywhere near you, and then all of a sudden he was pulling you out of the way!"

"Yeah that is really wierd," said Padma, looking at me as though I might have some idea of how Ron had gotten to me so quickly,

"I was as shocked as you are," I told her honestly. She looked a bit disappointed.

* * *

Throughout the day I continued to get acknowledged for my miraculous escape from death. It was really starting to annoy me. By the time lunch came round I was starting to get so sick of my friends' over the top behaviour, that I disappeared to the library in the hope of some peace and quiet.

The library promised just that. So immersed I became in browsing through the stacks upon stacks of books, that I didn't notice Seamus stood next to me until he patted me gently on the shoulder.

"Oh Seamus! Sorry I didn't see you there."

"No probs Hermione, I was just wondering if I could ask you something actually."

I looked at him blankly, then as he began asking me whatever it was he wanted, I caught sight of Ron Weasley stood at the other end of the aisle. His face was as handsome as ever, and his expression was amused as he pretended to browse through a selection of books; but really his attention was focused on me and Seamus. I couldn't help but admire the way his mouth curved upward to form the most heartstopping smile I had ever seen. He was completely and utterly perfect! Wait! What was I saying? He's a completely arrogant arsehole who is currently enjoying spending his time eavesdropping on other people's conversations!

"So...what do you think?" Seamus' voice dragged me back to reality.

"About what?"

Seamus looked hurt, "Do you want to go to the summer ball with me?"

"Oh," I said, panic began to set in, "Um, I'm not going to be in town that weekend Seamus." I said quickly.

"How come?" he demanded.

"I'm going to stay with my mother in Oxford for a few days."

"Can't you go some other time?"

"It's the only time she can see me," I lied swiftly.

"Oh," he sighed. He sounded really disappointed.

"Sorry," I said; I did feel bad about lying to him, but there was no way I was going to the summer ball, I couldn't dance to save my life!

"Maybe you should ask Parvati," I said, hit by sudden inspiration and the memory of a past conversation, "I'm sure she'd be only too happy to go with you."

"Yeah, I suppose," replied Seamus glumly. Conveniently, the bell signalling the end of lunch started to ring, and Seamus and I hurried wordlessly towards Biology.

He was there. As I sat down, I suddenly realised I hadn't noticed his exit from the library; he was nowhere to be seen when Seamus and I had left it.

Ron did not talk to me throughout the whole of Biology, and I certainly did not want to satisfy his deliberate deafness by making an effort to speak to him about his eavesdropping on us in the library, so between us at least, the lesson proceeded in total silence.

* * *

Sirius was home early when I walked in through the front door; I noticed this was strangely out of character for him

"Hey Hermione." he called cheerfully.

"Hello dad," I followed the sound of his voice into the lounge, where he was sat in front of the television, immersed in a baseball match, "how come you're home so soon?"

"Oh, there was nothing interesting going on at the station, so most of us have copped off early," he smiled at me with an almost too innocent look in his eyes; I think I knew the real reason why he was home sooner than usual. This was confirmed by what he said to me next.

"How's y'eh head doing? Not had any dizzyness today have y'eh?"

"Nope," I replied bluntly. I poured myself a glass of water, gulped it down, and then proceeded upstairs with the intention of starting on my homework, but Sirius called out to me.

"Oh Hermione, I hear you've got a field trip for Biology tomorrow, are you going?"

"Shoot!" I had completely forgotten about that, "Um yes I guess I will be going on that. How did you know about it?"

"Bumped into old Mrs Finnagan on the way home," said Sirius gruffly, "nice woman, her lad's a pleasant boy too, he's a keeper y'eh know sweet!"

"Thankyou dad," I sighed, "but Seamus is nothing to me other than a good friend."

"If you say so," replied Sirius, wagging his eyebrows at me suggestively. I scoffed at him and then headed upstairs to delve myself into the more comfortable world of books and research.

* * *

Arriving at school the next morning, I was greeted by the presence of two small minibuses; no doubt there to convey my Biology group to the local greenhouses, where Mr Snape had mentioned something about making a steaming mug of soil a few days ago.

Few others were about, so I headed over to my Biology classroom. The field trip was due to take up nearly all of the school day, so I sat myself down comfortably at my desk, and did some studying on the lessons I was missing that day. I didn't take note of anyone else coming into the room, until Seamus waved his hand in front of my face.

"You're always out of it whenever you're doing some form of studying," he commented, glancing at the piece of Trigonometry I was currently working on.

"Sorry," I said quietly, "I'm afraid I do become rather anti-social."

I placed my books back into my bag, and looked around the room; the majority of the class were now present, but I happened to be aware of the fact that Ron Weasley had not yet arrived. A sense of disappointment flared through me, and for once, I did not try to deny it.

"Right!" shouted Mr Snape, who had strolled cheerfully into the classroom, and was now ready to escort everyone outside. I noticed that we weren't the only Biology group going on this field trip, hence the two minibuses. I walked with Seamus as we were all filed into lines according to whichever bus we were taking, and that was when I saw him.

He was stood with one of his elder brothers and his younger sister in the queue for the opposite bus to the one I would be riding in. I took in his impressive, lanky build, and couldn't help but sigh at how attractive it was to me. His eyes swept the buzzy, chattering group until they caught sight of me, at which point his features twisted into an expression of complete and utter annoyance to which I retaliated with a look of hatred, but inside my feelings were completely softened; he looked rather sweet when he was frustrated.

* * *

"Green is good guys, make sure you get that into your heads! Plants are some of the most amazing elements to have been placed on this earth! Just look at how fascinating they are!"

Mr Snape and a gaggle of enthusiastic science nerds gathered round an enormous spider plant, as he proceeded to tell them of its mesmerizing qualities. I had to admit, plants did hold some of the most amazing biological facts I have ever read, but to be honest, I was becoming slightly bored with strolling around this gigantic greenhouse in such a repetetive pattern; everytime we passed the same plants, Mr Snape would call the entire group to a halt and then inform us of the exact same facts he himself had told us around about half an hour earlier. It was so tedious! After a certain amount of time, only a few members of the group remained glued to Snape's every word; the rest of us had drifted off to see what else this greenhouse might have to offer...

"What's the weather like in Oxford during the summer time?" asked a gruff voice a few metres behind me.

"Hmm, why would you be so curious about that?" I replied sarcastically, not looking round.

"I heard you were going to stay with your mum for a while, but you don't wanna go if there's not gonna be nice weather. You won't have much to do at all."

"Whatever the weather, I'd still go anyway."

"Would you?" said Ron teasingly, "But I thought most girls would prefer to holiday in bright, sunny conditions,"

"Well I'm obviously _not_ one of those girls," I said wearily.

"Clearly," he grinned.

I turned to face him.

"Why are talking to me about the weather? I' would have thought _you_ of all people would find that topic immensly boring!"

"No actually," said Ron, smiling, "the weather can be one of the best topics to talk about when you're stuck for something to say."

"And you, _Ron Weasley_, are actually stuck for something to say?"

"When it comes to you, yeah," he shrugged, "I have to try and pick topics which won't cause us to start bickering at each other, and that's a diffficult task."

I threw a dirty look at him, and then continued walking down an aisle full of cherry trees. Ron followed me.

"Is there something you want?" I asked suspiciously, "only you've been quite content with not talking to me for the past couple of days, what's suddenly brought this on?"

"I don't know," said Ron honestly, "Guess I just like winding you up."

I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a hard shove, pushing him away from me. Then, I carried on heading down the aisle, but again Ron followed me.

"Look," he said apologetically, "I'm sorry I'm being rude to you all the time, I just- I think it's the best way."

I stopped in my tracks, wonder and suprise building within me: Ron Weasley had just apologised to me, was I hearing things right?

"Best way for what?" I asked curiously.

"It just is," he said sternly.

"Are you going to tell me how you stopped the van?" I asked him aprubtly.

"Yeah," he said, "I had an adrenaline rush, it's very common, in fact you can google it."

I looked at him impatiently; I didn't have time for stupid witty answers. I began to stalk off, but not before I managed to slip up on the wet ground, causing my arms to flail as I headed for the hard surface. I waited for the impact, but none came. Instead I found myself feeling rather safe and comfortable in a pair of strong arms that had lunged forward to catch me.

"If you're gonna storm away from someone, at least watch where you walk! It might have a better effect!" laughed Ron.

"Git!" I mumbled, unwilllingly pulling myself from the safety of his arms.

"Charming," he replied, looking rather offended, "if it weren't for me, you'd be lying flat in a puddle!" his face fought to contain composure, and failed. I shot one annoyed look at him, and then headed back out towards the buses.

"Hey Hermione look!" shouted Ernie Macmillan running over to me with something in his hand, "it's a worm, it's a worm!" he waggled it in front of my face, causing me to squirm away amid peals of laughter from him and his friends. Ugh! I hated worms. I continued to internally shudder.

"Hermione!"

I stopped just by the buses, and turned to see Ron walking towards me.

"What now?" I asked idignantly.

"Hermione look, we-we shouldn't be friends." he said finally.

"You know I think you already made that decision on the day we first met!" I replied coldly.

Ron stared at me, a mixture of emotions flickered across his face.

"You know, if you'd thought about it," I continued," you could have just let that stupid van crush me, then you would've been able to save yourself all this regret!"

"Regret?" said Ron, shocked, "Regret for what?"

"For not pulling me out of the way!" I said a little hysterically.

"What, you think I regret saving your life!"

"I _know_ you do!"

"You don't know _anything!" _he hissed meanfully, glaring into my eyes. I glared back; totally entranced by him.

"Hi," said a soft voice, causing me and Ron to turn our heads. It was his sister Ginny, it appeared the rest of the group was now heading back to the buses, as she looked at me and asked hopefully: "Are you going to be riding with us?"

"No our bus is full," said Ron bluntly, he turned away from me and climbed into the bus, Ginny smiled at me and clambered in after him, followed by their elder brother, who winked cheerfully at me.

What were this family hiding?

**Please review and let me know what you think! :-)**


	5. Chapter 5

Biology

"Oh my god Hermione! Guess who's just asked me to the summer ball?"

I smiled. I had hoped Seamus would ask Parvati to the ball after I'd suggested it to him in the library; but for Parvati's sake, I pretended to play along.

"I don't know," I replied innocently, "who?"

"Seamus!" she shouted excitedly, "can you believe it? Oh I'm so happy! But-you don't mind right? I mean, it's not gonna be wierd? Cause I had a feeling Seamus might've wanted to ask you..."

"No no, it's absolutely fine," I assured her cheerfully, no need to tell her that Seamus had already asked me, "I'm really happy for you."

Parvati pulled me into a big hug, "oh thankyou Hermione, you're such a good friend, I don't know what I would-hey! You didn't speak to Seamus did you?" she pulled away and looked at me hopefully.

I shrugged, "I didn't have to say very much," I replied truthfully.

"You didn't?" she asked, astounded.

"No," I said. Parvati looked like she might keel over; really, all this fuss over a boy? But then, a distinct image of a specific person flashed up in my mind, and I immediately clenched that thought.

The morning bell began to ring, and I bid farewell to Parvati as we departed the parking lot, where we had been having our conversation.

The day progressed at a fairly enjoyable rate; Seamus seemed equally as happy as Parvati about his decision to ask her to the summer ball, and was now planning a group outing for the upcoming weekend.

"Stoatshead Hill!" he said excitedly to me in English, "what do you think? You in?"

"Should I know what Stoatshead Hill is?" I asked curiously.

"It's the hill on the other side of town," answered Neville from the desk behind us, "It's one of the biggest hills in the county, and it's got an amazing view once you've trekked up it!"

I grimaced; I really was not what you would call and outdorsy type of person. But, I had an overwhelming urge to spend some time with my friends; it felt so nice to be able to refer to them in that way! So, swallowing my irrational worries, I cheerfully consented, causing huge grins to spread across Seamus' and Neville's faces.

Biology had gone back to being a silent session between Ron and I. It was the one lesson I didn't enjoy being in, however it was the only lesson I ever felt a sense of eagerness for, and I knew only too well that it nothing to do with the lesson itself; it was the fact that I would be able to see Ron. How pathetic a thought?

Sirius cornered me during dinner when he came home from work that night; he accused me of not informing him of the crucial fact that a fellow student had prevented me from being crushed by Dean Thomas' van.

"I guess it just slipped my mind," I said quietly, knowing full well that it hadn't, and that the reason why I decided not to inform Sirius of this fact, was due to his already eratic behaviour towards an injury that I hadn't even gained!

Sirius still didn't let the subject drop: "So come on then, who was it?"

"You don't know who it was?"

"Nope, I just heard that you'd been pulled out of the way by someone who deserves a bloody good pat on the back by me,"

I sighed, "it was Ron Weasley."

"Really? Ron Weasley," Sirius sniffed, "well that doesn't overly suprise me; he and his family are some of the best citizens this town's got."

"Really?" I asked, suprised, "well he certainly doesn't set a good example when he's in school."

Sirius ignored me and went into the lounge to watch the latest baseball game. I cleaned up all the dirty dishes, then headed upstairs to read.

The following morning, I woke up early after experiencing a rather graphic dream, involving Ron disappearing in front of my eyes into thin air. Ever since I had beared witness to the impossible method Ron used in which to stop the van, my mind had been riddled with thought as to what he could be. And after the dream I had just perceived, my conscience was filled with the suspicion that Ron and his family might not actually be human...

School was crowded when I arrived there. Seamus happily informed me that everybody in our group was able to attend the outing to Stoatshead Hill, and my excitement for it seemed to increase everytime anyone spoke of it throughout the morning.

I kept my eyes fixed upon the Weasley family as I walked into the canteen; my brain was furiously analysing them for anything that might give some hint as to what they were. It had no luck. Although, as I was placing some food onto a plate, about to head over to my table, I felt someone tap me softly on the shoulder; I spun round, knocking my apple off my plate and onto the floor; it was Ron.

"Edible art," he commented towards my plate of food, as he bent down and returned the apple to the side of my tray.

"What do you want?" I asked him rudely.

"Just came over to say hello," he shrugged innocently, "that's what friends do right?"

"I thought you didn't_ want _to be my friend."

Ron shook his head: "I only said it would be better if we _weren't_ friends, not that I didn't _want_ to be."

"You know you still haven't told me what you mean by that," I snapped, turning away from him, although inside my heart was doing backflips.

"No you're right I haven't," he said, walking alongside me, I stared at him curiously.

"Don't you normally sit over there with your family?"

"Yeah I do," he said cheerfully, "but I was wondering if um, _you_ would like to sit with me today?"

I blinked twice; "pardon?"

"Jeez, you're not very good at picking things up are you?" said Ron increduously, he repeated himself, "I was wondering whether you would like to sit with me today?"

I stared at him. On the one hand, I remembered that I was supposed to absoutely hate this red headed charmer who was currently standing in front of me, but on the other, there was nothing I wanted more right now than to sit and eat lunch with him. So, without quite realising I'd done it, I nodded.

Ron grinned, and led us over to an emtpy table at the other end of the canteen. Just as I expected, both my friends and the Weasley family began to openly stare in shock.

"So," said Ron, after we had sat down; he gestured to my plate of food, "tuck in."

"Are you not hungry?"

"Nah, I'll have something later," he shrugged. We sat in silence for a few minutes while I took bites out of my pizza; it was very off putting trying to eat whilst Ron was watching my every move.

"Are you sure you don't want some of mine?" I offered.

"No, no," he waved his hand, "you eat it Hermione, you look like you need it more than I do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked sternly.

"That you're as skinny as a twig, and you need some nutrition inside of you," said Ron earnestly, gesturing to my figure.

"Well I hate to point it out to you, but you're not as buff as you like to think you are!"

"Why? Been checking me out?" he asked cockily.

"No!" I lied, my face becoming an instant giveaway.

Ron chuckled.

"So, what's brought this on?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

Ron looked like he was pondering on it for a few minutes.

"Ahh you're just one of those people who makes it up as they go along," I commented bitterly.

"No," he replied calmly, "I was wondering how best to answer you."

"Well let me know when you've got it figured out," I teased, looking at him expectantly.

A couple more minutes passed.

"Ok," he said finally, " For starters, I've been feeling really bad about what I said to you the other day on that field trip, and I wanted to say sorry for my behaviour."

I nodded, "apology accepted, providing it doesn't happen again."

Ron smiled, "does this now mean that we can at least be friends?" he asked hopefully.

My heart stuttered, "yes, I suppose so," I smiled.

Ron mirrored my action. However I sensed there was something more he wanted to say, so I gestured for him to continue.

"Also," he resumed slowly, "I've noticed you staring at me and my family quite a bit, what's that for?"

I smiled knowingly, he folded his arms on the table, I leaned towards him.

"I told you I was going to try and find out what you are," I said seriously,

He grinned, "had any luck with that yet?"

"Maybe a little, I've got some theories."

"Really? I love theories, tell us one."

"No," I blushed and looked down at my hands resting on the table.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because you'll laugh at me," I said shyly.

"No I won't," he said softly.

"You will,"

"Won't,"

"Will"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

We both stopped and half glared, half smiled at each other.

"Ok then," said Ron, "why don't you tell me one later on instead, cause if you don't," he warned," I'll just assume that you haven't got the brains to come up with any."

"Yes I have!" I replied indignantly. Ron grinned, causing my heart to falter, and rose from his seat.

"Bored with me now are you?"

"Nope, but the bell's about to go in a minute, and I'm guessing you won't wanna be late for class," he said simply.

"Late for class?" I stood up too and looked round; the canteen was practically empty, "goodness," I whispered.

"How time flies when you're having fun," smiled Ron, handing me my food tray.

"Thankyou," I took it from him.

"So I'll guess I'll see you tomorrow then Hermione,"

"Why tomorrow? We've got Biology next," I said.

"Yeah well, I've decided to ditch class this afternoon," he said honestly.

"What!" I was astounded, "you can't possibly ditch class, that's breaking the rules!"

"So blab on me," shrugged Ron.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I just ended up gaping like a fish. As though on cue, the afternoon bell started to ring, but I stayed frozen where I was.

"Well aren't you going then?" said Ron pointedly.

"Why are you planning to ditch class?"

"I dunno, it's just something I fancy doing, why? Do you wanna join me?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Knew you'd say that."

I continued to stare at him, for some reason I was struggling to find the willpower in order to walk away, my entire being yearned to stay with him. Ron didn't move anywhere either, but he was looking at me curiously.

"Well, if I'd known the sort of effect ditching would have on you, I certainly wouldn't have told you," he commented, chuckling.

"You know you're breaking school rules by doing this."

"Yes," he said, "but that's my choice. If I wanna break rules, I'll break the rules. If you _don't _want to break rules, then I suggest you get yourself over to that science block pretty swiftly."

I threw a very disappointed look at him, before turning and depositing my leftover food in the nearest bin; I made my way towards the door, Ron was starting to head off in another direction, but just as I pushed open the canteen door, he called to me.

"Have you got a strong stomach?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I shouted, as we were now standing at opposite ends of the canteen.

"Just think you ought to be prepared!"

"Prepared for what?"

"You'll see!" he waggled his eyebrows knowingly, I stuck my tongue out at him and walked towards Biology.

I arrived just as the late bell went. As I sat down at my desk, I caught sight of Seamus watching me curiously, I smiled at him and then turned to face the front of the class, where Mr Snape was stood brandishing a set of needles; my stomach lurched at the sight of them- I hated needles.

"Right," he said when all the class had fallen silent, "today we're going to find out what blood type you lot are, now I want you to take a needle, push it into your middle finger, and collect the blood in one of these petri dishes, which I will give to you in a moment. When you've managed to do that, come up to me and I will teach you how to work out your blood type, got it? Away you go!"

The rest of the class jumped up to retrieve a needle; I stayed in my seat, completely motionless, waiting for the yelps of pain to start.

They did not disappoint; within five minutes the room was filled with the sounds of people moaning and cursing, I was struggling to cope with it. The sight of people's blood was causing my head to become dizzy and my stomach started doing somersaults. I rested my cheek against the cool, soothing surface of the desk, the dizzyness faded a little. _Right, so this is what he meant by asking me if I had a strong stomach, _I thought annoyingly. I closed my eyes and began to drift off...

"Miss Granger? Miss Granger are you alright dear? You're looking a bit pale."

I opened my eyes regrettably; Snape was stood over me with a petri dish full of blood in his hand. I clasped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from retching.

"Can someone please take Miss Granger to the nurse!" Snape called. I didn't have to look to know that it would be Seamus who volunteered.

"You'll feel better soon Miss Granger," said Snape kindly, as Seamus helped me to stand up and placed my arm around his shoulder so that I would not lose my balance; the dizzyness was practically dominating my eyesight.

We walked slowly out of Biology and stepped onto the path. I gulped in a deep breath of fresh air, and Seamus immediately stopped.

"What's the matter Hermione? Are you going to be sick?"

"Mmmm," was all I could say. I detached myself from his hold, and sat down on the edge of the pathway; the coolness of it felt so lovely that I leaned down and rested my cheek against it.

Seamus stood there, not quite knowing what to do. Honestly, he must've thought me a total wierdo!

"Hermione?" I heard a familiar voice approaching; I groaned and squeezed my eyelids shut.

"Go away!"I mumbled; no one heard me.

"I'm taking her to the nurse," said Seamus defensively.

" Yeah looks like it. What the hell's wrong with her?"

"She fainted because of the blood typing we're doing in Biology, the lesson which _you're_ supposed to be in!" retorted Seamus.

Ron laughed, and the next thing I knew, I was being lifted up off the cool pathway by a pair of strong arms.

"Put me down!" I moaned.

"Hello to you too!" said Ron, his voice full of what sounded like relief, "You alright?"

"Fine! Now put me back!"

"Ah you see I'm afraid I can't do that, you're _supposed _to be going to the nurse."

"Well I can make my own way there, I don't need you to carry me!"

"Well tough tits, I'm already holding you," said Ron chirpily, and he began walking in the direction of the treatment room.

"Hey!" shouted Seamus, "I'm the one who's meant to take her!"

"Well come on then!" returned Ron, who was whistling as he carried me with what appeared to be not much effort.

"Buff git!" I mumbled into his chest.

"Sorry Hermione, didn't quite hear that," said Ron teasingly; he sounded like he was fighting the urge not to laugh.

"Get lost!" I retorted, Seamus chuckled.

"You know, I bet you regret saying that I wasn't all that buff earlier, my super macho strength is coming in quite handy now isn't it?"

"No! And I _don't _regret saying it!"

"Bet you do!" replied Ron.

I rolled my eyes, but obviously Ron didn't see. I was beginning to feel rather comfortable in his arms; safe and protected, just the way I felt when he saved me from falling over at the greenhouses.

We made it to the Treatment room in very little time; the nurse flew into a state of panic when she saw pale faced me being carried in by Ron.

"Oh my goodness! What's happened?" she said hysterically.

"It's alright," grunted Ron, laying me gently down onto the small bed in the corner of the room, I snapped my eyes shut and I swear I heard him laughing quietly, "she fainted in Biology."

"There's always one," the nurse said more calmly. She bent over me, "how're you feeling dear?"

"A lot better now," I opened my eyes, the room was no longer out of focus.

"Well, if you just lie there for a few minutes, I'll go fetch you an ice pack," she turned towards Ron and Seamus, who were both stood against the wall, "what about you two? Are you supposed to go back to class now?"

"I'm meant to stay with her," said Ron confidently. Seamus looked at him angrily.

"Right, well I guess that means you can head back to your lesson," the nurse said to him.

"But-I" Seamus began to stutter.

"No buts young man, I'm sure the young lady will be perfectly fine with this strapping young lad here," replied the nurse, and with that she escorted Seamus outside the treatment room. Ron stood looking exceedingly smug.

I shot a death glare at him.

"That wasn't a very nice thing to do."

"Yeah well he gets on my nerves," sniffed Ron, "You'd be better off without him."

"Well in my opinion there are a couple of people I would be better off without," I looked at him pointedly, his expression appeared to be hurt. I sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. _He needn't worry, _I thought miserably.

The nurse returned with an ice pack, which she made me hold on my forehead for a full fifteen minutes; which gave it time to make my whole face go numb.

"How're you feeling?" asked Ron, when the nurse finally allowed me to sit back up.

"Fine," I replied tiredly; as though to confirm this feeling, my mouth streched out into a massive yawn.

"Ooh dear," said the nurse, "I think it would be best if we sent you home early, fainting spells often cause long periods of tiredness."

"Oh ok," I mumbled, not in much of a mood to argue.

"Will you be ok getting home?"

"I'll take her," said Ron quickly, "I know where she lives."

"Very kind of you dear," said the nurse. She helped support me as I stumbled off the bed, and then headed out of the room with Ron right behind me.

"Right!" he said, once we were out of sight of the nurse's authorative glare, "home! Alright for some!"

I sighed, and then proceeded towards the parking lot; Ron walked very close to me, as though he was afraid I might lose my balance at any moment- mind you, I wasn't exactly moving in the straightest of lines.

When we reached the lot, I bid farewell to Ron and began to make my way towards my truck. But a hand suddenly grabbed the back of my jacket and flung me backwards.

"Were you not listening in there? Didn't you hear me promise that _I_ will take you straight home?"

"I thought you were just saying that to make the nurse happy," I replied, the strength in my voice returning.

"Well for your information I wasn't," he said sternly, still keeping ahold of my jacket.

"Oh come on I'm fine now! Please let me drive my truck."

"No. It's dangerous to drive whilst you're tired."

"I am not tired!" I retorted loudly, but as if to deliberately annoy me, my mouth let out another huge yawn.

"Course you're not," said Ron sarcastically, and with that he flung me over his shoulder and began walking towards his blue Ford Anglia.

"OI!" I yelled, "Put me down at once or you will suffer the consequences!"

"Will I now?" Ron laughed, "I shudder to think what they might be!"

"This is not dignified!" I whined, my voice full of frustration, "Put me down!" I began hitting every available part of Ron that was within reach.

"You're a stubborn little thing aren't you?" he chortled, finally setting me down by the passenger door of his car, completely unaffected by my feeble attmepts to hurt him.

"You are so pushy!" I moaned.

"It's open," was all he replied.

I threw him a filthly look and, making it unclear of my unwillingness, clambered into his car.


	6. Chapter 6

**Stoatshead Hill**

**Ok so here is chappie 6!To Magikcat, yes I have made Snape a softy in this because I find it rather funny! Hope u enjoy! **

"So," said Ron, as he locked the doors and began to pull out of the parking lot, "you faint at the sight of blood then."

"Don't start bringing that up!" I snapped moodily. I had been taken by brute force and shovved into a car completely against my own will! I was not in the best of moods.

"Oh lighten up!" Ron groaned, "I'm only dropping you home! That's hardly the world's biggest crime is it?"

"There is absolutely no need for you to drive me home!" I said stubbornly, "all I've got is a bit of a headache, and now you've just made it worse!"

"Me? I don't think I'm the one who's done anything! _You're_ the one working yourself up into a state."

I scowled at him, and then regretted it. The minute his eyes met mine, I felt utterly guilty for the way I was behaving, after all, what was _so_ bad about him giving me a lift home? I _was_ rather tired, and if truth be told, I really did not want to say goodbye to him.

"I thought you were meant to be ditching this afternoon," I asked him suddenly, "how come you were still in school?"

"I'm not the type of skiver who wastes their whole day ditching," said Ron casually, "I'm no where _near_ that sad! I was gonna come back into Biology once I started getting bored. The only reason I saw _you_ lying in a heap on the ground, was because I had a view of the pathway from where my car was parked."

I flushed red as I remembered how I must have looked to him and Seamus.

Ron was oblivious and starting humming gently as he turned down another road.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked suspiciously.

Ron looked at me; he appeared to be pondering his answer.

"Cos that's what friends do right?" he shrugged finally.

"But...you and me, we're not exactly the closest of friends, we don't seem to care very much about each other..."

"Is that what you think?" Ron asked curiously.

I shrugged. Although I knew damn well that was not what I thought; I knew that _I _cared about _him_ much more than I was supposed to.

"I just wonder," I said slowly, "you've never seemed to particularly like me."

"I could say the same about you towards me," returned Ron.

"Well you were the one who started it all!" I said frustratedly, turning my nose up at him and gazing out of the window. He chuckled.

We continued on in silence for a short while.

"Which road's yours?" asked Ron.

"Next one on the left," I pointed.

"Cheers," said Ron as he turned into it, "you live in a quite a nice area."

"Suppose..." I pondered, aprubtly aware of the fact that Ron knew where my house was, "whereabouts do you live? I heard that you didn't live anywhere in town."

"No," he replied, "we live just a way outside Ottery St Catchpole, in the middle of the countryside."

"That must be beautiful," I commented.

"Yeah, yeah it is," he said, smiling softly to himself.

He pulled up outside my house,

"Here we are," he said cheerfully.

"Thanks" I turned to look towards the drive, Sirius was not home yet- thankfully. I turned back to face Ron.

"What time is it?"

"Your guess is probably better than mine, you're the one wearing a watch."

"Oh!" I blushed, glancing down at it quickly, "it's two o'clock," earlier than I expected.

"Well, I best be heading back to school, unless you're ready to tell me one of those interesting theories that you mentioned at lunch."

"What! No!" I said suddenly.

"Please, just one! I swear to God I won't laugh! Honest!"

"Are you even religious?" I eyed him beadily.

"Nope! Not in the slightest!"

"Then I could take that as a form of blasphemy!"

"Oh come on! Just one! One little theory."

I sighed, I knew I couldn't resist him much longer, no matter how hard I tried; what was this power he held over me?

"Ok, promise you won't laugh?"

"I promise," he said surely, "hand on heart!" he placed his hand on his chest.

"Well...perhaps... I was wondering, is there a history of sybill activity in your family?"

I was never saying anything to him again; the minute I shut my mouth, Ron threw back his head and began to roar with laughter.

"So much for the promise!" I snapped crossly, undoing my seatbelt and leaning to open my door; it was locked.

"You're not even close!" he yelped chirpily.

"Will you unlock my door please."

"Oh," he sounded a little disappointed, "are you going then?"

"Yes! I never even wanted a lift from you in the first place!"

"Well so much for gratitude!" he said sarcastically, pushing a button which allowed the locks to spring upwards.

"Will you be wanting your truck back anytime soon?"

I was halfway out the door when I remembered it.

"My truck! Oh no, and my schoolbag! Oh I need both of those for school tomorrow! Goodness what am I going to do?"

I was bouncing up and down in a flap. Ron sat and watched me with a bemused expression on his face before he said, "Calm down dearie! Everything will be fine. I'll have Ginny drop your truck and schoolbag off after school, will that be ok?"

I paused, guilt flushing through me once again as I looked up into his too-perfect eyes. Why was I letting my temper flare out of control? Ron had hardly lost his at all today, come to think of it; I don't even think he had!

"Thankyou," I whispered, my apology written all across my face.

"S'ok" Ron grumbled, " I'm sorry for laughing at you."

I nodded my forgiveness, and then proceeded to remove myself from the warmth of his car.

" So... you up to anything good this weekend?" Ron asked unexpectedly.

I held the door open and leaned my head in so I could talk to him.

"Yes, a group of us are going hiking up Stoatstead Hill."

"Ahh good old Stoatshead, nice place. But, look don't get me wrong, it's just...you don't strike me as the kind of girl who would be happy with lugging themselves up a very steep hill."

"Believe me I'm not," I laughed nervously, "I'm terrified of falling over and breaking my ankle or something."

"Yeah those potholes can be pretty nasty!" Ron teased, "well I hope you have a nice time," he blushed slightly, "I'll um see you on Monday. Me Fred and George are starting the weekend early; we're off camping!" excitement filled his eyes.

"Camping!" I practically flinched, "you're giving up valuable school time in order to spend time in a freezing cold tent?!"

"It's called appreciating the beauty of nature!" said Ron enthusiastically, "now I suggest you get yourself inside, while I get myself back to that bloody school!"

I pushed my door shut, and turned to head inside the warm confines of my house. As he began to chug cheerfully back down the road, I gave Ron a casual wave, and then contiuned to watch him until he'd disappeared out of sight. _Oh dear, _I thought miserably to myself; it was going to be a very long weekend.

* * *

I never saw Ginny return to my house with my truck; come to think of it, I didn't even hear it approach! I was regularly glancing out of my window when I suddenly saw it sat in it's usual spot on the edge of the driveway, with my schoolbag in the holding pen.

* * *

Friday proceeded in an uninteresting fashion, and though I knew the exact reason for it, it didn't make me feel all that better.

Seamus' behaviour seemed to have improved since yesterday; he was in an extremely chirpy mood during English, and it wasn't entirely diffcult for me to work out the reason why.

"Notice Weasley's not in today," he said happily.

"No, he's gone on a camping trip with his two brothers."

"Camping? In this weather! Why couldn't they just wait till tomorrrow?"

I shrugged.

"How do you know about it anyway?" he asked accusingly.

"Because he told me when he was giving me a lift home," I said, eyeing him sternly; something about Seamus' attitude towards Ron was beginning to worry me, and I felt a strong need to protect him.

"How come he gave you a lift home?" demanded Seamus.

"You know," I closed my workbook, "I'm starting to feel like I'm in an interregation room Seamus! Why should it _matter_ to you if Ron Weasley gave me a lift home?! It was perfectly fine, and it's absolutely _none _of yor business!"

Seamus didn't say anything to me about Ron for the remainder of the day; although Pavarti and Padma seemed to have a fair amount of interest as to why he would be so gallant as to offer me a lift home.

"He just seems so unfriendly towards you all the time,"commented Padma during lunch, "but then to go and do a thing like that...ooh maybe he's interested in you Hermione!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" I said, astonished by such a suggestion. However, although my head denied any sort of hope; my heart swelled to the size of a balloon in response to Padma's insinuation. I hit it firmly with my hand.

As per normal, it was raining again as I made my way out to my truck at the end of the school day. Seamus still had high hopes towards our hike up Stoatshead Hill tomorrow, but at the rate this weather was going, we were going to have a better chance of sliding _down_ it instead of walking _up_ it!

"Hey Hermione!"

I turned at the sound of my name; Dean Thomas was making his way over to me.

"Hi Dean! Oh it's good to see you out of hospital, how are you?"

"I'm good," he said cheerfully, " the docs' finally saw fit to discharge me! Um but anyway listen, I was wondering if I could ask you something actually..."

"Oh really?" I said curiously, oblivious to what his question might be, "ask away."

"Well...you know the summer ball's about to come up and um, people need partners and that... well I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"

I froze on the spot.

"Oh" I said, completely thrown, "um, I'm afraid I'm not going to be in town that night Dean. I'm going to visit my mother."

"Oh right," said Dean, looking rather disappointed, "I heard you'd said that."

"Then why did you still ask me?"

"Coz I kinda hoped that you'd just said it to ward other people off."

I blushed slightly, "I'm sorry Dean, I really _am_ going to be away that weekend."

"It's ok," said Dean, doing his best to hide his chagrin, "Guess I can ask someone else. Anyway, you going on that hike up Stoatshead Hill tomorrow?"

"Yes," I replied, grateful for his swift change of subject, "although I daresay we might have a bit of trouble getting up it if this weather doesn't improve!" I glanced up at the clouded sky worriedly.

"Yeah," said Dean, "speaking of which, you'd better get yourself into that nice undamaged truck of yours before we both catch hypothermia!"

I nodded gratefully, my body felt completely and utterly numb; it had never been so cold since I'd first arrived in town. If we were really unlucky we might end up being cursed with some dreaded snow! That would be just my luck!

* * *

I woke up the following morning wishing I'd never said anything about the possibility of there being snow; for as I routinely glanced through the curtains of my bedroom window, I saw a thick, heavy blanket of the crisp white element covering the ground.

"Ha ha! You're gonna have a fun time hiking in this weather Hermione! Just make sure you've got y'eh snow boots on."

"Thankyou dad, that is most thoughtful." I said bitterly, whilst excusing myself from the breakfast table.

"Just looking out for you kid, you and I both know that you're not the best person to talk to about keeping y'eh balance!" he broke out in fits of laughter.

"My balance is perfectly fine!" I retorted, tying my red woolly scarf around my neck, and covering my head in a thick woollen hat.

"If you say so!" replied Sirius chirpily. I was quite suprised by his laid back attitude; snow is actually a very dangerous hazard, and I above all people was in no position to see it in any other way!

Sirius watched me as I flung a backpack over my shoulder and began to say my farewells.

"See y'eh later sweet, n' seriously, make sure you're careful when walking up that bloody hill; I don't want anything else happening to y'eh."

"Thanks dad, I'll make sure I'm careful," I gave him a wave and then preceded outside into an awaiting snowy blizzard.

I arrived at the meeting point, which consequently was Seamus' house, in suprisingly good time due to my speed limit being 20 miles an hour. Everyone else was huddled in a small group outside the front door, their faces hidden behind thick coats and scarves.

I turned off the igniton in my warm, cosy truck; and clambered out towards my friends who called out words of muffled greeting as I approached them.

"Hey!" said Seamus, who quickly trudged over to me, "brilliant weather isn't it! We're taking a sledge up so we can all slide back down the hill! Won't that be cool!"

"Um, yes, yes very cool Seamus," I replied nervously; I now needed to think up a swift excuse for not riding such a wooden death trap.

"Hey Hermione!" said Padma, her face half hidden behind a bright blue scarf, "how are you?"

"I'm ok thanks Padma, how are you?"

"I'm good. Not too sure about this weather though; the boys' think it's an amazing opportunity to go toboganning, but I'm not entirely sure it's gonna be all that safe."

"Oh come on Padma!" whined Seamus, "we've been looking forward to this trip for days! Don't spoil it now; wher's your sense of adventure!"

"Tucked up nice and safe in bed!" she replied gloomily. I giggled, Seamus threw me a reproachful look, but his attention was quickly occupied, as he started grouping people into the two cars we would be taking in order to get to the hill.

"With any luck we'll get snowed in along the way!" mumbled Padma moodily. I kept my mouth shut, and was placed into the second car with Seamus, Neville, Parvati and Ernie Macmillan.

The ride to Stoatshead was quite comfortable, everybody chatted away happily, and I felt a huge sense of belonging with the people who encouraged me to laugh, joke, and bring out a bit more of my fun side.

When we reached the hill (much to Padma's dismay we weren't snowed in), I was temporarily mesmerized by the sheer size of such a product of nature. I marvelled at the fact that I hadn't been able to notice it before; for it was definetely big enough to be seen from our side of the town. As we were removing ourselves from the warm comfort of the two cars, I caught sight of three figures aproaching our group through the wisps of snow falling. Their crunching footsteps drew everybody's attention, and a couple of us moved forward in order to gain a better perception.

"You lot must be as crazy as we are! We knew this would be a perfect opportunity to go trekking recklessly up Stoatshead Hill." shouted a friendly, familiar voice which I recognized.

"Harry!" I called out; everyone looked at me in suprise.

"Hermione? Is that you?"

"Yes, oh it's good to see you again!"

"It's great to see you too!"

We trundled with difficulty towards each other, and when I was close enough to get a good look at his face, I saw a big happy smile plastered across it.

"How have you been?" asked Harry enthusiastically, "It looks like you've settled into school pretty well," he gestured to the others behind me, who had now started approaching in order to find out who these mysterious visitors were.

"Yes, I have. These are my friends: Seamus, Padma, Parvati, Neville, Dean, Ernie, and Lavender."

"Nice to meet you all," replied Harry warmly, "My name's Harry, and this is Cedric and Viktor," he pointed out the two tall boys stood either side of him; both of them smiled cheerfully. Harry turned to look at me.

"Would it be alright if we joined you all up the hill? There is after all, only one way to go."

"Of course!" I replied happily, my consent supported by eager nods and whispers from the others behind me.

Harry smiled, and he, Cedric and Viktor began leading the way upwards, whilst engaging in cheerful conversation with Dean, Neville and Ernie.

"Seamus," whined Parvati, "are you sure it's safe to be walking up the hill in this kind of weather? maybe some of us should stay down here at the bottom..."

"Oh no please Parvati!" said Seamus, "we've come all this way; besides if you stay down here you'll most likely freeze to death, won't she Hermione?"

"Oh yes, I would say definetely!" I teased alongside him. Parvati heaved a huge sigh and clutched hold of Seamus' hand as they started to walk up the snow covered hill. Padma, Lavender and I brung up the rear.

"So have you two got dates for the summer ball yet?" asked Lavender, as we slowly but surely made our way upwards.

"No," I said wearily, forgetting the significant fact that I supposedly wasn't going to be in town that night. Although Padma and Lavender didn't know that yet.

"Me neither," said Padma, "although...I keep kinda hoping that Dean might ask me, but I think it's gonna be very unlikely."

"Then why don't you ask him?" I suggested. Padma looked at me interestingly, I went on: "I think that you ought to take control, I mean, you're a smart and independent young woman. Why not go for it?"

"Do you know what Hermione, I think you're right!" said Padma chirpily, " yes...yes, I _will _ask him!"

We carried on for the remainder of the journey in slience; the hill was getting much steeper the higher we progressed up it, and lots of people were now being held back by painful stiches.

When we finally made it to the top, we found that there wasn't even much of a view due to the foggy white blizzard which consistently swirled around us. Seamus tried to rally the atmosphere by setting up the toboggan, upon which only some of the boys positioned themselves with eagerness.

As the group of people on the toboggan slided swiftly back down the hill, the rest of us began to follow them at a much more steady and comfortable pace. I found myself walking alongside Harry and Viktor, both of whom I enjoyed engaging in conversation with.

"So," said Harry, "I hear you are a survivor of a miraculous incident."

"Oh no," I groaned, "have you been talking to Dean?"

"We might've touched upon conversation whilst we were walking up with him," smiled Harry and Viktor. I scowled in response.

"Doesn't sound like a subject you enjoy talking about," observed Viktor.

"It's not," I said sternly.

"How come?" asked Harry.

"Because I've not had a break from it since it happened!"

"Ok," replied Harry calmly, "we just wondered because, when Dean was telling us, the whole thing sounded a bit wierd; apparently somebody called Ron Weasley pulled you out of the way in a matter of seconds."

My heart fluttered a little at the sound of his name, "um yes he did, but not necessarily in a matter of seconds...I think Dean's been exaggerating a bit too much."

"Perhaps," mumbled Viktor.

"Do you know the Weasleys?" I asked casually.

"We've come across each other..." said Harry slightly awkwardly, "but we-"

"The Weasley's _don't_ come here," cut in Viktor seriously, and with that he sped up and continued to walk alongside Neville.

I looked at Harry curiously. He understood the look on my face.

"I'm guessing you caught that did you?" he asked with certainty.

I nodded, "what did Viktor mean? He looked so angry by my mentioning of the Weasleys. What is it they've done?"

Harry scratched his nose, and then turned to look back at me.

"Ok, have you ever heard of the legend that exists between the half bloods and the pure bloods?"

I shook my head.

"Well," explained Harry, "they are two sides of a specific type of being. The side which mine and Viktor's families supposedly descend from is the half blood side; but others such as the Weasleys have come from the pure blood end, you with me?"

"Yes," I replied, intrigued.

"Now, according to legend, those who exist of pure blood look down on those who are not like them," he gestured to himself and me," some prefer to keep themselves to themselves, and live happily with their snobbery and stuck up opinions. But others feel that it is their duty to cleanse the world of anything which exists below pure blood; so they kill and recklessly murder thousands of innocent people; half bloods and muggles alike."

"What's a muggle?" I asked.

"Someone like you," said Harry simply.

My mouth was slightly agog, "and so...do you think the Weasleys feel a need to cleanse the world of anyone who is not like them?" I asked tentatively.

"I don't know," replied Harry musingly, " the half bloods and pure bloods do _not _get on! But... take into account they _are_ only stories; myths that've been passed down from generation to generation. Who knows if they're really true!"

I didn't say anything; my mind was whirring with the information that Harry had just put forth to me. How could Ron Weasley's family come from such a brutal bloodline? I knew they were not the most friendly people within the school, but it had never occured to me that any of them could be capable of murder! As I thought this, my head was suddenly filled with a horrifying image, involving Ron ruthlessly torturing a helpless victim...

"Hermione? Are you alright? You're looking a bit pale."

I rubbed the light layer of sweat settled across my white forehead. The sudden perspiration had nothing to do with the amount of exercise I was doing.

I glanced at Harry, who was looking at me with a worried expression on his face.

"I'm fine," I assured him, "just a little worn out with the exercise that's all!"

"Oh," said Harry, "well, we're nearly back now; I can see the others loading the toboggan back into the car."

I did my best to put on a cheery attitude as we bid goodbye to Harry, Cedric and Viktor, and began making our way back to the other side of Ottery St Catchpole; but for the remainder of the afternoon and throughout the entire night, my thoughts were filled with disturbing visions of Ron and Harry locked in some kind of vicious combat...


	7. Chapter 7

**Saved**

**Ok so here is chapter 7, hope u enjoy!**

I arrived at school on Monday with hevay bags under my eyes due to the sleep I had been depriving myself of. For the remainder of the weekend, I had read and researched everything I could think of that could possibly explain the meanings of half blood and pure blood; having remembered at the last minute that I'd forgotten to ask Harry what specific type of being these bloodlines stemmed from.

I'd had absolutely no luck; and I was beginning to take this mystery as a personal insult- Hermione Granger rarely got stuck on things, yet here was something that I had not been able to come up with a logical justification for! It was infuriating. So, with an exceedingly short temper, I got through most of the morning without even paying any attention to what was going on around me.

But I began to perk up as lunch approached. As I trailed into the canteen with Pavarti and Padma, I began to wonder whether _he_ was here today, and if he was, would he ask me to sit with him again...

To my astonishment I was not disappointed; no sooner had I started piling food onto my plate than Padma informed me of the following:

"Ron Weasley's staring at you Hermione, he's sitting on his own again today,"

I whipped my head up and glanced across the canteen; Ron was sat at the same small table where we'd first perched ourselves last friday. His eyes were fixed upon my own, and there was a mischevious grin plastered across his face.

"I guess this means you won't be sitting with us again today," commented Parvati, with a slight jealous edge to her tone.

"No no it's nothing personal," I assured her quickly, "Ron might want help with some Biology homework, I'll go and talk to him."

With that I walked slowly away from them and preceded with slight nervousness towards Ron. His cheeky grin seemed to widen as I got nearer.

"Nice to see you," he commented cheerfully as I sat down opposite him, "you seem to know me rather well, I didn't even have to come over and ask you this time,"

"You make me sound like some kind of pet dog!" I retorted, completely stung by the way he put it across.

"Suppose I did," he pondered, "sorry," he added sharply. I gave him a stiff nod to show him my almost forgiveness, and he began to change the subject.

"So, how was your hike up Stoatshead Hill? I can see you managed to come back in one piece."

"Oh yes," I replied anxiously, I had been hoping for an opportunity to inform Ron of the discussion between me and Harry, but hadn't quite worked out how to breach it. So instead I prolonged the flow of casual conversation.

"The weather was indeed very charming," I said with heavy sarcasm in my voice, "it was snowing."

"Oh yeah, I noticed that," smirked Ron; he appeared to understand my opinion of extreme weather conditions by the look on my face; _damn_, why could he read me so easily?

"Was it snowing where you were?" I asked curiously, remembering that he and his brothers had been away camping for the past couple of days.

"Pretty much," shrugged Ron, "but it didn't bother us too much, gave us an opportunity for some bloody good snowball fights actually!"

I flinched, "but...you must've frozen! I mean spending the weekend in a tent whilst enduring heavy snow! You're lucky you weren't trapped in it!"

"Yeah I guess we were," he mused cheerfully, "but hey, here I am, no cuts or grazes, and in fact, I'm willing to bet that I was a lot more comfortable than you were this weekend."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked suspiciously, "are you telling me you didn't really go camping and decided to cosy up inside a nice big hotel instead?"

Ron laughed, "we could've done," he admitted, "but I guess we were too stupid to think about how much more sensible it would've been to book into a hotel, besides, we still had all our usual home comforts whilst camping."

"Sounds like your home comforts are very limited then!" I announced, slightly put off.

"Oh no," smiled Ron, "I'm actually very fussy about my comfort; a comfortable bed, a kitchen, bathroom, they're all essentials to me having a good time away from home; and let me tell you I had an extremely good time this weekend! Even if the bathroom was a bit small..."

"You're having me on!" I threw at him, my temper had been short enough anyway this morning, but now Ron had just pulled it to the absolute maximum, "how could you have possibly had access to a bed, kitchen and bathroom whilst camping in the middle of a snowstorm! Just admit it, you didn't even camp anywhere! You were holed up in a nice cosy hotel or even at home in your nice warm bed!"

"Are you calling me a liar!" Ron snapped, clenching his fists as his temper too began to boil inside of him.

"Yes I am!" I hissed, "I'm sick of everything you kind of people say to me! I don't believe any of it's true! And I hope you rot in hell after you've suffered an extremely painful death!"

"Well I hope you do too! You know _nothing!_"he shot back at me. His face bright red and full of anger.

My cheeks red from the fury that bubbled within me, I stood up and stormed out of the canteen, leaving my untouched tray of food and a viciously angry Ron still sat at the table.

Once free of that red headed person's piercing glare, I charged around the school, my temper ready to lash out at anyone who dared tried to speak to me. I looked like a mad woman; my bushy hair flew out behind me like waves of electricity, and my eyes were full of fire as I seethed over everything that had happened these past few days.

I had been told that there was another type of species that stemmed two bloodlines, one of which

was famous for its intent on killing anything that was not like itself. Furthermore, a particular person who I was trying very hard not to be interested in, supposedly carried the blood which was full of hate and murder, while another person I knew descended from the other bloodline...what did it mean!

"Hermione? Hermione?"

I started; I had taken refuge behind some lockers where in my mad rage I'd presumed no one would find me, but Seamus was now stood next to me, a hand on my shoulder and a worried expression on his face.

"Are you alright?"

I checked myself, my temper seemed to have calmed down in my few minutes of solitude, but something about my expression appeared to be scaring Seamus, so I attempted a smile.

"Thanks Seamus, um I'm fine, really, I just needed a bit of breathing space that's all."

"Was it Weasley?" he asked meaningfully, "I saw you get up and storm out of the canteen after somthing he'd said."

"No, no it wasn't Ron Weasley, well it was but...it doesn't matter Seamus, everything's fine, I'm fine. Now, would you please mind moving out the way so we can start heading towards Biology." I said quickly.

Seamus hurriedly obeyed and, still shooting curious glances at me, we made our way to Biology, where I sat myself down at our currently empty desk without looking at anyone; my temper was still balancing on the edge of control.

I didn't even look up when I heard the seat next to me move, and he certainly did nothing to try and catch my attention; and so the last few minutes of lunch proceeded in silence until the afternoon bell went, and Mr Snape came joyously bouncing into the room, excitement shining in his eyes.

"Right now class, everybody outside; I've got a real treat for you all today! We're going to be making an explosion!"

At his words, the rest of the class began talking animatedly about the prospect of a loud bang, while I inwardly flinched at the idea of such a horrible loud noise.

"I want you all to follow me in a nice _organised_ line," shouted Snape, "in fact, I want you to pair up with the person sat next to you; because this is going to be a pretty extreme bang, I don't want anybody stood on their own in the course of the explosion, so come on now, pair up and form a line!"

The class hurried into two rather wonky shaped lines, everybody stood in a pair. Ron and I did not say anything to each other, but merely positioned ourselves amongst the others in the two different lines. I was beginning to feel nervous, I _really_ did not like loud noises, they gave me such a fright, and after my breakdown at lunch, I wasn't sure I was in a fit mental state to be scared out of my wits this afternoon.

We followed Mr Snape out into a small clearing on the edge of the woods which sat next to the school. After ushering us all behind a safety barrier consisting of logs, Snape began to prepare the necessary ingredient needed for the explosion: rubidium . The class fell silent; there was no other word needed which would gaurantee a louder and more brutal explosion.

As we waited expectantly for the grevious loud bang, I felt my heart rate pick up and my breathing was starting to become very difficult to control; I glanced helplessly around me, everybody else was tensed for what would surely be a very noisy and vicous explosion, but no one appeared to be as stressed out as me! I started beating myself mentally: _Get a grip, get a grip, it's only a loud noise, it's not going to hurt you, get a grip, get a grip..._

"It's alright," murmered a soft voice next to my ear, "It'll be over soon."

I took a sharp intake of breath as I remembered who I was supposed to be standing next to. Then, suddenly, a vicous and roaring BANG filled the clearing, causing me to gasp and grab hold of the nearest thing to me. The sound was unbearably loud; it ripped at my ear drums and the impact forced me to scrunch my face up in a look of pain. Around me I could hear yells and squeals of shock as the noise flew past us, then there was nothing but a thick layer of dust coating the air, and jubilant yells of delight descended from those who quickly got over the shock.

"Yeah! Wahoo!"

"That was amazing!"

"Can we do it again sir?"

"Yeah please can we do it again sir!"

I glanced down at my hand to see what it was currently gripping onto, I noticed another warm hand, a hand which held mine comfortably and protectively within its own, as though it was always made to fit. I raised my eyeline, and instinctively jerked my hand away as my eyes came into contact with his.

I walked back to the classroom in total silence; everyone around me was joyfully recounting what they all referred to as "a well cool" explosion, but I was completely distracted....

_I noticed another warm hand, a hand which held mine comfortably and protectively within its own, as though it was always made to fit. I raised my eyeline, and instinctively jerked my hand away as my eyes came into contact with his and a sudden jolt of electricity soared through me, along with a beautiful, powerful, unchanging emotion... _

* * *

"Hermione! Oh Hermione! I just had to find you; guess what's just happened?"

I shook my head obliviously, "What?" I asked.

"Ok, I'm going to the summer ball with Dean! I did what you suggested, I asked him and took control!"

Suprise and happiness flowed through me on behalf of Padma,"oh well done Padma! I told you it could happen."

Padma sqealed and pulled me into a tight hug; over her shoulder, I caught sight of Parvati coming over to us. When she was within talking distance, she spoke pointedly to me.

"He isn't here Hermione, the Weasley's head off out of this school much quicker than any of us lot can manage."

"Um what makes you think I was waiting for him?" I asked dumbly, feeling totally caught out.

"Hermione, we all saw what happened in the canteen this lunchtime, and plus, why would anyone bother freezing themselves to death by standing next to their vehicle, gazing at the spot where he and his family normally park even when they know that it's already empty."

I didn't say anything, trust me to forget that Parvati's last lesson was in a room with a clear view of the parking lot. Fortunately, though, Padma was in too much of an excited state to be worried about my incident with Ron, and was now planning a trip out shopping for summer ball dresses. Luckily, this was also something Parvati could not help talking about.

"Oh we should so go shopping before all the good dresses get cleaned out," she said excitedly, "what about tomorrow night!"

"Well you know that's fine by me!" replied Padma, she turned to me, "will you come with us Hermione? I'm desperately gonna need your opinion on dresses seeing as it was down to you that I got my dance partner!"

"Oh um ok," I said a little shyly; shopping for dresses was really not an area of my expertise, but I desperately needed to get out and distract myself, so I put on an excited attitude.

* * *

Sirius was careful to inform me of being on my guard whilst out shopping with Pavarti and Padma, when I acquainted him with our plans at dinner that night:

"I'm not saying they're not nice girls sweet, but they can get a bit over the top, just have a nice time with them, and make sure y'eh don't do anything stupid."

Slightly amused by my father's lack of faith in my sensibility, I spent the rest of the evening immersed in homework, after which all I had to look forward to was another restless night's sleep...

* * *

School passed by at a suprisingly speedy rate on Tuesday; one small fact that particulary caught ahold of my attention, was Ron Weasley's unexpected abscene; something which continually pecked at the back of my mind throughout the whole day.

But I refused to let any confusing thoughts cloud my head as I, Parvati and Padma cruised towards the nearest shopping centre at the end of the school day. We were in the twins' bright blue porsche and Parvati turned the music up loud as we laughed and chatted about the things that were happening around us, and for a while I was completely oblivious to the things that had been dominating my mind recently.

Although, there was little hope of keeping my problems at bay for long; the twins both tried on at least fifteen dresses each before they finally declared their final choice; which meant that I spent most of the evening sat outside the changing rooms, attempting to fight off thinking about what he could be doing right now, and wishing I'd bought some extra work to do.

After selecting their dresses, Parvati and Padma both expressed a desire on finding the perfect pair of shoes to match. Not wanting to spend another two and a half hours hanging around the shoe department, I politetly excused myself by asking them where the nearest book store was.

"It's round the corner and down another two rows of shops," exclaimed Parvati, "do you want us to come with you?"

"No no, I can become quite emmersed when it comes to looking at books, as you probably already know," I stated honestly, "you two sort out which shoes you're going to get and how about I meet you at that restaurant we said we'd go to in about an hour?"

They both nodded eagerly, so I bid them goodbye and headed out of the dress shop in the direction that Parvati had pointed.

The book shop was indeed an enlightning place to be after being sat outside those changing rooms for hours; I browsed amongst the interesting volumes for ages and ended up purchasing a rather variable selection of novels.

Despite only being in the bookshop for just over half an hour, the streets were dark and devoid of people when I stepped back onto them. The change in atmosphere confused me, and I was virtually clueless with regards to which was the right direction to the restaurant. So, following my initiative, I headed back down to the end of the row and turned left; I walked in mismatched directions for about ten minutes until I noticed I was no longer surrounded by shops, but warehouse buildings. This meant I must've gone too far, so I turned around and began walking back towards the suprisingly distant flicker of streetlights.

But it was beginning to get late, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a rather rowdy looking group of young men hovering on the other side of the pavement. At first I thought they hadn't spotted me as I scooted hurriedly down the dangerously slippery pavement, but just when I thought I'd got by them undetected, they called out to me:

"Hey gorgeous! Where you off to in such a hurry?"

I ignored them and continued making my steady but swift way back towards the centre of town. But, when I reached the end of the pavement, I realised that what I had been walking towards hadn't been the area containing the shops; it was the centre of the warehouse industry. _Shoot! _I had gone further than I thought, But the most disheartening thought was the fact that in order to get back to where the shops were, it meant walking past that group of men again....I really was not very keen on that. But there was little else I could do unless I wanted to freeze to death in the middle of the workhouse industry, so steading myself with a deep breath, I began to head back in my previous direction; hoping that those boys wouldn't notice me this time...

I would've done better to stay where I was. The gang had switched to the opposite side of the pavement and were now stood directly in my intended path. Coming to an immediate and silent halt, I prayed that they hadn't heard me approaching; but, just as I was about to creep across to the other side of the road, I sensed somebody stood a couple of inches behind me. I flew round; it was the man who had called out to me, and he was now looking at me with a menacing and jubilous look on his face.

"There you are gorgeous! We were beginning to wonder where you'd got to. Come n' have some fun with us eh?"

Slowly, he began to approach me. I backed away, knowing full well that his cronies had positioned themselves right behind me and around me, so there was little or no way I could escape. The panic that I had tried to keep bottled was beginning to lose its lid, and I felt myself starting to shake rather violently whilst sweat dribbled down my forehead.

"Awww, it looks like she's cold!" jeered the man who was advancing towards me, "well perhaps we can warm you up sweetheart!"

"No!" I tried to yell, but my throat had gone completely dry with fear. From behind me, someone grabbed hold of my arms and held me tight against his body. I wriggled and strruggled as hard as I could, but the man who had been acting as spokesperson for his group took a firm hold of my face and slowly began pulling my lips to his.

"No!" I yelped frantically, "please no, no! NO!"

As my scream reverberated across the entire street, it was accompanied by the screeching of tyres as a car came flying round the corner, aiming directly for the group on the pavement. The men scattered; I was roughly pushed out of the arms which were previously restraining me and fell against the harsh brick wall belonging to a nearby warehouse. Out of the blue, gentler arms encircled me, and I felt myself being pulled back onto my feet with a gruff voice saying: " Go get in the car now."

I obeyed immediately, not even looking back to see whether the men had returned to challenge the person who had attempted to squash them into the wall. But, as I threw myself into the passenger side door, I caught sight of the gang cowering together a little bit further along the road; their attention appeared to be fixed on something in particular, but because the brightness of the car's headlights was blinding my vision of everything positioned close to me, I was unable to see whereabouts my saviour was. Then suddenly, I felt the whole car shudder as he plunged into the driver's seat and thrust the car forwards, again aiming for the now petrified group of men who were beginning to see sense and make a run for it. The car lurched backwards as it was thrown into a violent spin, causing me to let out a shriek of terror, and then we were speeding back down the empty road, quickly deserting the now silent street.

I did not look at him for a couple of minutes. I could tell his temper was fuming; his breathing was ragged due to his hardly clenched teeth, and his hands were balls of fists upon the steering wheel. Most of his face was obscured because of the dark confines of the car, but the part of it I could see looked almost dangerous, and I could hardly doubt the fear that mirrored within me as I remembered the looks on those men's faces when he stood before them...

"Are you alright?" he asked quite abruptly, his face still a mask of anger.

"Ye- yes," I stammered shakily, using my voice for the first time since I'd let out that scream.

"Did they hurt you?" he continued seriously.

"No, I don't think so," I checked myself for any cuts and bruises; the only thing that seemed to ache was my unfortunate right shoulder,it having suffered the hard impact after I was plunged into that wall.

"I should go back and rip their bloody heads off!" he hissed menacingly.

"No you shouldn't!" I replied, slightly disturbed.

Ron let out a frustrated breath, "Could you talk about something else!" he asked me desperately, "distract me so that I won't turn around."

I could hardly think of what to say to him, but then I noticed that he was driving at 60 mph without wearing a searbelt.

"Holy crow slow down!" I yelped loudly; the needle dropped down to 40, "and _please _could you put your seatbelt on."

Ron let out a quick short burst of laughter, "why don't you put _your_ seatbelt on!" he said a little hysterically.

He drove us to the main car park, where on arrival, I caught sight of Parvati and Padma making their way back to their car. Without looking back to see what Ron was doing, I quickly jumped out of the Ford and headed over towards them, calling their names as I did so.

"Hermione!" they both yelped in suprise and relief as I stopped in front of them, "where on earth were you? We've been so worried!"

"Oh sorry I'm afraid that's my fault," cut in Ron, who I hadn't noticed get out of the car and follow me, "Hermione and I bumped into each other and just got talking, I'm really sorry I made her miss her dinner with you."

The twins and I stared at Ron with opened mouthed expressions for a couple of minutes. Since when had he become so gallant and charming? I caught sight of Padma's expression out of the corner of my eye; her eyes were fixed upon Ron, and the exact same question was written across her features.

"Um well..." began Parvati, with a curious glance towards me, "I guess that clears things up um, listen we're really sorry Hermione, but we spent ages waiting for you and we were really hungry so we decided to have something to eat whilst you weren't there." she looked at me rather guiltily.

"Oh...it's ok," I said reassuringly, "I'm not very hungry anyway."

As though on cue, my stomach let out a huge rumble which Ron, who subsequently raised his eyebrows at me, and I, responding to him with a forceful glare, most definetely heard.

Parvati brightened up a little, "Ok, so does that mean you're all ready to head off home?"

I was just about to relunctantly nod, when Ron quickly decided to say: "Um listen, I'm not too sure that Hermione's eaten something solid for a while," he looked pointedly at me, "would it be an idea if I took her off for something to eat and dropped her back home later?"

I was really not very happy that Ron had put this whole statement towards Parvati without even checking to see if it was alright with me first! And to top it off, I was particularly offended by Parvati's motherly- like answer:

"Well yes I don't see why that would be a problem; she probably needs some good food in her. But make sure you don't drop her off too late, it is a school day tomorrow."

"No probs," smiled Ron, causing Parvati to let out a nervous giggle before talking to me.

"We'll catch you later then Hermione, um ring us if you think you might need some help with anything," she looked at me suggestively. I let out a small smile and waved.

"See you tomorrow Hermione," grinned Padma, as she forcibly slammed the right hand door, and the car began to scoot off onto the main road.

We stood in silence for a couple of minutes, then Ron turned to face me.

"So,"he began, "where would you like to go?"

"Nowhere," I replied stubbornly, "I said I was not hungry."

"Oh come on Hermione," he groaned tiredly, "I'm just trying to help you here."

"Well I don't need your help!" I said forcibly, "if you fancy something to eat, you go and have something to eat."

"Look, if it weren't for me, you've been made mince meat out of those disgusting perverts!" he spat as the look of pure anger returned to his face "the least you could do me in return for saving you is to come and have some dinner with me."

The breath hitched in my throat; Ron had asked me to have dinner with him; I knew he didn't mean anything suggestively by it, but oh how my heart wished he would!

The murderous expression was still etched across his face as he waited for me to respond. I breathed slowly out.

"Look, ok I'll come and eat something with you. But before we go anywhere, please could you try and replace that look on your face; it's scaring me."

Ron looked at me worriedly, then his face relaxed into a calm, warming smile; I could hardly take my eyes off him.

"Upwards an onwards," he said cheerfully. I smiled and the two of us began heading for the nearest restaurant, where I was completely and utterly astonished by the amount Ron was able to eat.

"Aren't you even full yet!" I exclaimed as he tucked into a huge pudding with the appearance of a person who'd been left to starve for the last few days.

Ron shrugged and said simply, "I'm a bloke aren't I? Got more room inside me than you."

"Well you won't do for much longer! Your stomach looks about ready to burst!" I said worriedly.

Ron rolled his eyes and silently finished his portion, after which he immediately began to look at me very inquisitively.

I blushed and bit my lip nervously, "what is it?" I asked him.

"I'm suprised," he said simply.

"About what?"

"About why you haven't bombarded me with at least 101 questions since I saved you earlier this evening."

I looked down into my lap, "Oh...um well...I wasn't planning on ruining your dinner by throwing half a dozen questions at you all at once, but since we're now finished..."

"Oh I see," smiled Ron, "You wanted me to be in a better mood so you wouldn't have to worry about me flying off the handle when you ask me something I don't like. "

"Well I have read that the majority of males are crabbier if they haven't got any food inside of them, and plus I want you to be absolutely truthful when it comes to answering me."

"I'm not sure I can promise you on that one."

"Why? Don't you think I've seen and heard enough to be owed a little honesty?"

"It's not that. it...it's just...it's too dangerous for you to know too much!"

"Why?!" I said exasperatedly, "I'm completely confused by the way you speak to me! _Why_ is it so dangerous for me to know something about you?"

Ron let out a deep, stressful breath and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Please don't force me Hermione," he begged seriously, "many who have known about people like me have ended up in mortal danger because of it, and I don't think I could bear it if anything like that happened to you."

The breath caught in my throat; I struggled to regain my flow of oxygen before I said in reply to him: "What do you mean by sayng "people like me"? Are you referring to the fact that you are a pure blood?"

A deep frown spread across Ron's face, "how did you know about that?" he asked suspiciously.

I felt a sense of acheivement in outdoing him with regards to the extent of my knowledge, "I was talking to a friend who lives on the other side of town, and he told me some of the myths that he's acquainted with."

"Did he know anything else apart from the myths defining the pure bloods and the half bloods?"

I shook my head. Ron let out an exasperated sigh, and then suddenly, for a reason unbeknowest to me, he let the barriers down:

"So," he started quickly, " I'm guessing you probably wanna know how I knew whereabouts you were when those guys started harrassing you,"

I nodded earnestly, "how did you manage to arrive at just the right moment?"

Ron glanced down into his lap, he seemed to be thinking about how best to answer me.

"No lies," I reminded him.

"No lies," he repeated, looking back up at me. He let out another low sigh, "Ok, the reason I knew where you were tonight," he began quickly, "was because I was following you; I followed you and your friends from the moment you left school and ever since you arrived here," he looked at me guiltily, "I was doing my best to lie low in case you needed my help for any reason, I used the minds of other people to keep a close eye on you, and then I saw the memories of those disgusting twats down in the middle of the warehouse district, and I knew that I had to rescue you."

He kept his eyes fixed on me as he came to the end of his confession. I was completely lost for words; Ron had been following me! Following me ever since I had set foot out of school in the earliy hours of this afternoon! I felt like I could do nothing but stare at him in confusion, although it wasn't long before I found my voice:

"Why?" I asked bewilderdly. Ron blushed slightly before he answered me.

"Because you're a bit of a klutz," he smiled nervously, "you've got into more accidents than the whole of Ottery St Catchpole put together."

My mouth fell open in response to his offensive comment, "I'm not that clumsy!" I said in my defense, "I know I've got into situations which most people wouldn't experience throughout their entire lives, but that doesn't mean to say it's all my fault!"

"Did I say it was?" said Ron gently, "all I meant was that you've ended up in a lot of situations which have nearly resulted in a fatality," his face seemed to lose some of its colour as he said the last word, "but that doesn't mean to say it's definetely gonna happen again, not unless I'm around anyway," he added coyly.

I turned my face away to hide my smile, "you said... that you were able to find me by viewing the memories of other people," I said a little dumbfoundly.

"Yeah I did," he admitted a bit shamefully.

"How?" I asked curiously.

"Well...there's a sort of method that I can use, which would allow me to read every mind of every peson sitting in this restaurant right now- including yours."

Slight panic began to overwhelm me for a few seconds, "does that mean you're able to see everything I'm thinking right now?"

"No," Ron shook his head, "it'll only work when I choose it to. Right now I'm as oblivious to what's going in everyone else's mind as you are." he smiled softly at me.

But I was still slightly on edge, "have you ever tried to read my mind before?"

"No, I would never be that rude. The only time I would ever read people's minds is if someone is in danger or if a specific person particularly rubs me up the wrong way."

I relaxed a little, still trying to take in the fact that Ron had the capability to read people's minds. Silence proceeded between us for a couple of minutes as we both went over what had just been said; my mind was a whirlpool of confusion and wonder; so much had been unravelled yet there was still loads more that was left to be said.

"Hermione," said Ron gently.

I looked up at him; he could not have been more kinder to me this evening, and I knew this moment would stay etched into my mind for a very long time.

"Yes," I said quietly.

"I'm...I'm sorry for everything that I've said to you this evening; I know it must be really difficult for you to try and believe...and um I feel terrible for burdening it on you-"

I held up my hand to silence him, "please don't blame yourself," I begged softly, "I wanted to know these things; and although I can hardly deny the fact that they've given me quite a shock," I laughed nervously, "I know I feel better off now that I understand to a certain extent."

Ron's expression relaxed slightly but he still maintained a solemnly serious expression as he spoke to me again:

"Hermione I...I know I've been a complete arse towards you but...I don't think I have anymore strength to try and stay away from you..."

I stared deep into his beautiful eyes as the meaning of what he said swept through me, "then please don't," I whispered, my voice begging with him...

* * *

The journey home was mostly in silence; Ron turned the heater on, but after a while it began to get a bit uncomfortable.

"I think I'm warm enough now," I assured him quietly, and reached out my hand to switch off the heater; but Ron's hand had moved towards it too, and as our fingers collided, I felt the familiar jolt of electricity soar through me, causing me to gasp and look up at him; the expression on his face was mirroring my own- had he felt it too?

We were heading in a direction which passed the police station, but as we approached it, I noticed there were a hefty number of active police cars patrolling the area, and Sirius' car was still residing in the middle of the car park.

"What is going on?" I asked worriedly.

"Dunno," said Ron, who slowed the speed at which we were travelling and approached the police station with caution.

"My dad's still here,"I pointed out to him, "would you mind pulling in?"

Ron began to head into the station car park, at which point he caught sight of something:

"Merlin! That's _my_ dad's car; what the hell's he doing here?"

I guessed that if Ron's dad was present at the police station, then something serious had happened. We headed towards the main entrance, and then saw him walking slowly out of the double glass doors in the direction of an awaiting ambulance.

"Dad!" Ron called, and both of us hurried towards him.

"Ron," acknowledged a tired looking Mr Weasley, "what are you doing here?"

"We were just on our way back from the shopping centre, why are you here?"

Mr Weasley did not say anything at first, but looked at me and Ron with an expression of great concern.

"There's been a terrible incident,"he finally began, "Hermione, it involved one of your father's closest friends, Remus Lupin, I think it would be advisable if you go to him and show him your safe; I'm afraid he's rather distraught."

"Ok," I said quickly, but before I left them, I asked Mr Weasley, "do you know what was the cause of his death sir?"

"I think I'll leave that to your father to explain to you as and when he chooses," he replied gravely; as he said this his eyes made contact with Ron, and I thought I saw a flash of understanding flicker across Ron's face, but I couldn't be too sure.

"I'd better go in then," I said conclusively; I turned to Ron and gave him my thanks for everything he'd done for me this evening; he did not say anything in response, but merely nodded his head and gave me a small smile; he suddenly seemed rather troubled.

Sirius was relieved to see me as I walked into his darkened private office.

"Hermione! Thank god you're ok sweet!" he pulled me into a rib-crashing hug.

"Yes dad I'm ok," I looked up at him worriedly, "how are you doing?"

"Oh I've been better," he sniffed, "S'pose it just came as a huge shock that's all; it could've been anybody."

"Do you have any idea how it happened?" I asked tentatively, "Ron's dad said it was a terrible incident."

"Yeah yeah it was," grunted Sirius, "we found him out by the woods; and he appeared to be lookin' alright, no cuts no bruises, the docs' haven't even been able to specify the cause of death; apart from telling us that he was as cold as a block of ice n' his face had a look of terror on it! But how?" Sirius' voice gave out and he covered his face in his hands, the memory of his friend too clear to try and bear.

I patted his back gently as he sobbed into his hands; I had no other idea of how to comfort him, and another interesting issue was how on earth could a person become so scared that their heart just gave out? As this was the point that my father had been implying.

Sirius slowly regained his composure and raised his head back upwards; he looked at me with such sad swollen eyes that I felt my own eyes well up just from his expression.

"I'm so sorry for you dad," I whispered hoarsely. Sirius patted my hand which was placed on his shoulder.

"You're a good girl you are, n' you look absolutely shattered."

I smiled tiredly at him.

"Come on," he said, with an attempt at normality, "let's go home."

We headed out of the police station, where Remus Lupin's body was now being loaded into the back of the awaiting ambulance. As I tried not to notice a pair of unnaturally pale feet poking out of the plastic sheet, it hit me.

Images from the last few weeks were speedily flashing across my mind: the way he got over to me so fast, how he stopped the truck with a single stick of wood, the ability to do things beyond people's imagination such as reading minds, the uniqueness of the blood that runs in his veins...goodness!

I knew what Ron Weasley was.


	8. Chapter 8

**Understanding**

**Here is my favourite chapter! Sorry it took so long, Im quite busy with exam revision at the mo but I'll try and update as often as I can :-)**

**Thanks for the reviews! Its nice to know you're enjoying it. In answer to your question EarlyLearningCentre, Ron could read Hermione's mind if he wanted but out of politeness and respect for her he chooses not to :-) enjoy the chapter!**

I could hardly eat, couldn't possibly sleep; the dreams that plagued me throughout the night involved nothing but Ron performing spellbinding acts that couldn't even be logically justified in my mind! And yet they were justified; everything he was_ I _was now acquainted with; what was to happen now? I couldn't stay away from him; emotions that had taken hold of me long before I realised they had were preventing me from turning my back and running...but instead it meant that I had to talk to him...I had to...there was no going back now; I had chosen what_ I _wanted, now it was time for him to do the same...

* * *

School was empty when I arrived there; although I _had_ left more than half an hour earlier than my usual departure time. I was also suffering an immensely painful headache; my brain was piled up with a whole range of emotions, and I found myself repeatedly banging it upon the steering wheel.

When other people started to arrive, I stepped out of my truck and went and took refuge on a nearby bench. In an attempt to distract myself from the turmoil that was going on inside my head, I took up an immensly confusing trigonometry book and tried to understand some of the more advanced calculations. I had no luck. Everything outside my dizzying and frustrating thoughts was completely irrelevant; I hardly noticed the calls of greeting that were directed towards me as students wandered past; my brain had turned to mush! Nothing else was important, nothing else held any means of significance,_ he _was the only thing that mattered now, _he_ was the one who would stand at the centre of my universe whether he liked it or not, _he_ was the one who had turned my life around, he-

Goodness! He was on the other side of the parking lot; so absorbed was I in my bemused thoughts I had completely tuned out to everything that was going on around me. Yet there he was, as attractive and captivating to me as ever; I couldn't take my eyes off him. However, he had not seen me for the moment; his eyes seemed to be wandering the extent of the parking lot in search of something, could it have been me? Quite suddenly, without being fully conscious of what I was doing, I found myself standing erect and heading straight towards him; _what are you doing!? _the small remaining logical part of my brain screamed; _facing up to what I've spent so long trying to deny _replied my emotional clustered side. My feet appeared to be walking at a speed of their own accord, for all too soon I was standing a few feet away from Ron's lanky form as my eyes met his with a powerful knowing look which I was certain he understood from the wordless response he gave me in return. I carried on walking past him, away from the school and in the direction of the nearby forest; Ron followed suit, his tall build walking a good couple of feet behind me, as we headed for the decision which would either go one way or the other...

I don't know how long I continued walking for, but all of a sudden I came to an abrupt halt in the middle of a beautiful clearing bathed in weak sunlight. It was utterly charming; the greenery was illuminated so that bright colours danced across my vision, and flowers of all breeds were rallying in the rare rays of light that had broken free of the clouds. I thought it absolutely stunning, but I had not been driven from the reason for our sudden departure from the school grounds...

"You're impossibly fast," I said loudly, when I felt his presence behind me on the edge of the clearing, "and powerful. You can make things freeze by use of what looks like a stick, but really it's something capable of so much more. Blood flows in your veins which is part of a brutally historic legend, and..." I was on the verge of hysterics now, "and sometimes you speak like...like you're living in a completely different world."

Ron did not say anything, but I felt him move so that he was now standing right behind me; a tear swept down my cheek.

"I know what you are," I told him defiantly, and more tears fell from my eyes.

"Then say it," whispered Ron softly, speaking for the first time since we'd reached the clearing.

I opened my mouth, but the word was not ready to come out yet; I drew in a sharp hasty breath as Ron whispered to me again:

"Out loud," he murmered, the closeness of his voice causing me to tremble. Yet still I could not speak it.

"Say it, say it out loud," said Ron, his voice rising.

The forcefulness of his words seemed to trigger something in me; my lips parted:

"You're a wizard," I said in a hushed voice, tears now staining my face. I wiped them away hastily with my sleeve.

Ron stood silently for a few seconds, then, his eyes fixed intently on the side of my face, he asked, "Are you afraid?"

Taking in a few shaky breaths, I managed to stem the flow of my tears, and turned slowly so that we were now face to face. Looking at him very surely and very deliberately in the eye, I opened my mouth and answered honestly, "no."

Ron looked slightly disappointed; his teeth looked like they were trying hard not to grit themselves as he said to me, "then ask me the most basic question, although I'm sure you already know the answer: what is my bloodline famous for?"

I kept my eyes glued to his as I remembered what Harry Potter had told me that day up Stoatshead Hill: "You...you won't hurt me," I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt, for Ron had a vicious look in his eye, which remained constant as he suddenly grabbed my arm and began dragging me to the edge of the clearing.

"W-where are we going?" I asked nervously.

Ron was breathing deep heavy breaths, "have you ever flown before?" he asked, grabbing a long thick wooden stick lying amongst some leaves.

"Wha- no, um, I'm not very fond of hights," I admitted shamefully; freeing my arm from his less than comfortable grip..

"Then you're probably not gonna enjoy this," said Ron cautiously, biting his lip, "but you need to see...you need to understand for certain..." he mumbled, and then without so much as a word of warning, he grabbed hold of my arm and flung me onto the back of the long heavy stick, upon which he was already balanced.

"Hold onto me," said Ron as he kicked off from the ground and we began shooting like a bullet up the incredibly steep hill with absolutely nothing supporting us other than the simple bit of branch. The shriek of suprise that I intially would've let out was nothing more than gasp; Ron ducked and swerved as we tore through the dense forest, creeping higher and higher every minute but keeping within the safe enclosure of the trees. I wanted to close my eyes, but the sheer level of astonishment I was experiencing kept them wide open; I clutched onto Ron's waist with all my might, terrified the broom was going to collapse under our weight; but amazingly it remained airborne until he began to touch down towards the ground. I braced myself for the hard landing, but we hit the floor quite gracefully. We immediately dismounted the branch and Ron threw it into a nearby bush, glancing round to check whereabouts we were before he looked back at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked timidly.

"Y-yes," I stammered, and then said in a more irritated voice, "I told you I didn't like heights!"

Ron laughed, "I could tell!" he said, rubbing his waist. But then his expression turned to that of a more serious one. "You're still not afraid are you?"

"Only of flying brooms!" I said resentfully. Ron's brow furrowed.

"You're not scared of me even in the slightest?" he asked worriedly.

"No," I replied wearily, taking a step closer to him due to the fact we were stood a good few feet away from one another, "how many times am I going to have to keep telling you that?"

"At least once more," said Ron sadly, moving closer to me as well. I wanted to hold him, I wanted to reach out and touch him, stroke his freckle feathered cheeks...but I kept my hands in fists against my sides; the electric current which had soared through me on those rare occasions when Ron and I had touched, was now consuming us in some kind of enormous bubble: I could feel it everywhere.

Ron bit his lip again as he came to a halt directly in front of me; I could see every part of his attractive face, and my eyes were completely lost as they got caught up in it...

"I'm born to be a killer Hermione," said Ron gently, gazing deeply at me whilst waiting for my reaction.

I had it all ready: "No you're not," I whispered softly, "I don't believe that,"

Ron stared at me desperately.

"_Please_ Hermione," he murmered in earnest, "_Please_ don't put your trust in me. I'm- I'm not right."

"It's too late for that," I replied ardently, "I'm _here _because I trust you. I trust you with my whole heart and I'm never going to stop trusting you!"

Without thinking about what I was doing, I instinctively leaned in towards his memorable warm scent. But with a faint _pop, _Ron disappeared from the spot he was standing in and emerged on the branch of a nearby tree. I stared at him, slightly aghast.

"That's how you got over to me so fast the day that van nearly hit me," I said confidently.

"It's called Apparition," confirmed Ron, "It's an easy form of travel used by most witches and wizards; you have to pass a test to get a license. I don't mind it, but it's quite uncomfortable; brooms are better."

Personally, I found the idea of being able to vanish and reappear in a different place much more appealing than riding a broomstick; but Ron's statement had struck another question in my already overcrowded mind:

"Are there a lot of witches and wizards out there then?" I asked curiously.

"Loads," replied Ron, "we live in hiding all over the world. As far as I know, our family's the only wizarding settlement round here apart from the Lovegoods, but they live on the other side of the hill..."

"That's amazing," I exclaimed, "I never knew there were more so many of you! It's quite extroadinary!"

Ron suddenly looked at me extremely seriously, as though I was suffering from a severe illness.

"Don't take that to mean all wizarding families are good!" he said abruptly, "my family are probably the worst bunch of blood traitors you could ever come across just for mixing with muggles, and we're not faring well with what's going on in our world at the moment."

"Why? What is going on out there?" I asked nervously.

"There's a war coming," said Ron, looking at me with that same sad expression, but never taking his eyes off me, "millions of people are going to get caught up in it."

"Is-is this a war between your people?" I asked gently.

"Yes," he replied, "the muggles don't know anything about it, apart from what they might suspect."

"_I_ know about it," I said defiantly.

Ron looked at me with such emotion, it took all my willpower not to clamber up that tree and throw myself into his arms. Instead, I broke the sudden silence by asking another one of my many questions:

"Why did you hate me so much when we met?" I was dreading the answer to this one. Feeling as though my heart was going to jump out of my body, I approached the tree anxiously; Ron's eyes never left my face.

"Because you brought about feelings in me," he said honestly, "feelings that were so strong and powerful, I had no way of understanding them. I was angry at myself; I was angry at you for making me feel so different. But then I thought if I could just stay away from you, maybe those feelings would go away but..." he trailed off, unable to inform me of the thing we were both earning to say.

"You're not safe with me Hermione," he said gravely, "there's a war coming and I don't want to get you mixed up in it."

"I already am mixed up in it," I replied resolutely, "people like me are going to end up getting killed even if they don't understand the reason behind it! How can I not escape this?"

"It would be more dangerous if you were caught hanging around with a pure blood wizard!" snapped Ron, peering down at me, "at least away from me you'd be protected by blissfull ignorance!"

"But I'm not ignorant!" I cried hysterically, clambering up into the tree and causing Ron to lean back against the moss covered trunk, "you've just told me about the things going on in your world; how am I supposed to forget that! How am I supposed to forget _you_!"

"You have to try Hermione," said Ron persistently, "try with all your heart if you want a better chance of keeping hold of your life!"

"What if I don't want to keep such a tight hold of my life!" I argued, "what if I preferred it to be hanging on the tip of a thread just as long as it meant I could stay with you!"

Ron's mouth opened, but no sound came out. We were perched inches away from each other, our carefully measured breath sweeping across the other one's face. I stared at him firmly; then Ron suddenly jumped out of the tree, and stood on the damp ground with his back to me. I gave him a few minutes of solitude and then made my much less swift descent from the tree branch. His back was still facing me. Unsure about what to do, I bit my lip, so hard that it began to draw blood. Hurriedly, I wiped it away before the smell became too much for me; then Ron spoke:

"You don't know how long I've waited for you," he said sincerely, turning to face me with a look of resignation, tears started to well up in my eyes, "I've never felt this way about anyone before."

"Me neither," I replied quietly, Ron came to stand in front of me, his eyes shining with emotion.

"And so the wizard fell in love with the muggle," he murmured with a slight chuckle, reaching out and stroking my cheek gently.

"What a stupid muggle," I whispered, my voice breaking.

"What a stupid dickhead of a wizard," smiled Ron, and with that he leaned his head towards me and pressed his lips to mine in a soft loving kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as a dozen emotions soared through my whole body, and moved my lips against his. He was exceedingly gentle; and his strong arms held onto me protectively. How long we stood there locked in our embrace I did not know, but one thing was for certain: this was the happiest yet most tragic moment of my entire life.


	9. Chapter 9

A Whole New World

Sirius sounded ready to knock the stuffing out of me when I came hurrying through the door at four o' clock that afternoon:

"And where, might I ask, have you been all day young lady!" he called loudly from the front room, "I got a phone call saying you've not set one foot in school today! Now that's very unlike you; care to tell me where you've been?"

I edged slowly into the front room; Sirius was perched on his usual armchair with the latest baseball match blaring out of the TV and an expression of great curiosity etched across his face; I struggled to put an excuse into words as I remembered who I had been with all day; my stomach was doing somersaults.

"I-I um I was at the local library working on a private home project," I lied quickly; Sirius' eyes narrowed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I only just decided I would focus on that after you'd gone to work," I continued more swiftly.

Sirius grunted, "make sure you tell me next time," he requested, and then turned his attention back to the television.

Taking a breath of relief, I ran upstairs, locked the door of my bedroom and threw myself onto my bed_. Phew! _I would be in trouble with the school tomorrow, but hopefully if I told them the same thing I'd informed Sirius, perhaps they wouldn't look into it too much. Yet I could hardly bring myself to regret the reason behind my missing school today; my eyes closed as I remembered those glorious moments we had spent in each other's company...

_"Your lips taste of blood," commented Ron as we broke apart from our tender first kiss._

_"Sorry," I blushed, my arms still wrapped round his neck, "When I get nervous I tend to bite my lip a lot and-"_

_Ron silenced me with a soft chaste kiss: "It's ok," he murmured, "I do exactly the same."_

_"I've noticed," I said, smiling happily at him._

_"Have you?" smirked Ron, holding me tighter in his arms, "you must've been finding it difficult to keep your eyes off me these last few weeks then."_

_"Yes I have!" I admitted openly; it felt nice to be able to finally get things out in the open, "more than you can probably imagine."_

_"I bet I can imagine a fair deal," said Ron smugly. I raised my eyebrows at him and then, before I knew it, he had pulled me to the ground so we were now sat side by side in the middle of the dazzling clearing._

_Ron took hold of my hand in his so there was a part of us still touching. It felt exactly the same as it had done the first time I clasped hold of him: our hands were made to fit. Gazing at them entwined for a few minutes I looked up at Ron, whose expression was calm with his eyes fixed on me, and asked him why he had suddenly changed his mind about us being together:_

_"Because I'm too selfish," he said honestly, "I was trying with all my strength not to let us fall into this situation but..." he broke off with a heavy sigh and looked at me lovingly, "I need you too badly; you're the most important thing in my life now, and I'll never be able to live without you."_

_I clasped hold of his hand tightly, "Promise me you'll never leave me," I said, overcome by sudden desperation._

_"Hermione, why would I ever do that?" said Ron worriedly, "did you not listen to what I just said."_

_"Can you not remember what you said before all that," I replied nervously, my breathing was quite ragged all of a sudden, "about it being too dangerous for us."_

_Ron placed his other warm hand gently on my cheek, I leaned in towards his scent._

_"I can hardly say that us being together is not dangerous," he said softly, "but I can reassure you that the odds of us getting into any trouble are not that great," he smiled kindly, "believe me, if you were in any danger, I would do everything it took to make you safe again."_

_I smiled back at him; it was next to impossible for me not to be happy right now, and yet the feeling of anxiety was also unable to be non-existent. I sighed deeply._

_"You're still not convinced are you?" Ron asked apprehensively, "maybe I need to prove it to you a little more..."_

_Because I wasn't looking at him, I never saw the mischevious grin flash across his face. All of a sudden I found myself lying flat on the floor with Ron on top of me pelting me with kisses._

_"Ron get off I-"_

_But I soon became incoherent as I allowed myself to be swept up in the warmth of his embrace. My heart was pounding furiously as we kissed each other with such fiery passion, I felt like I was going to explode. All the tension we had been feeling over the past couple of weeks was being released in this one kiss; it was extroadinary. I knew there was no going back now, I knew things were never going to change, I knew this was the thing I'd never been aware of not having, but needing intensely; Ron was everything now; he was the reason for my very existence, and nothing in the world would change that..._

"Hermione! Hermione!" I opened my eyes with a jolt: Sirius was calling me.

"Yes dad!" I shouted through my closed door.

"Could you come downstairs and show me how to work the oven please!" he asked shamefully, "I'm not too sure which of the knobs I'm supposed to turn!"

Laughing at my father's incredulity, I heaved myself off of my bed and headed downstairs to what smelt funnily enough like burning.

It was quarter to one in the morning, and I was still tossing and turning in bed like some wild animal. _Damn, _I hated these restless sleeps; they meant I was never fully alert when in lessons. If only he wasn't so distracting...

"Blimey, you're a really troublesome sleeper aren't you!" said an extremely familiar voice from over in the corner.

I sat bolt upright, "Where are you?" I whispered into my dark room feeling like a total idiot; now I was having hallucinations regarding Ron's voice!

"Here," he replied cheerfully; he sounded closer now. I leaned over and flicked on my bedside lamp, turning back to actually find Ron, hair ruffled and still in the clothes he'd worn yesterday, sat happily on the end of my bed.

I stared at him dumbfoundly for a few minutes, "how-how did you get in here?"

"Apparated," he said amusingly.

"I thought you didn't like that form of travel,"

"No I don't, but it's a lot less noisier than using a broom or floo powder; and I wasn't intending to wake your dad up as well as you," he grinned happily.

"What's floo powder?" I asked curiously.

"Transportation using fireplaces," said Ron, " but you can only do it as long as there is another fireplace waiting for you at the other end, otherwise you'd get a bit stuck."

I grinned, and then looked at him suspiciously: "How long have you been sneaking into my bedroom for then?"

Ron looked slightly taken aback that I had worked out his actions so soon after his arrival.

"Oh um I've been coming up here for the last couple of nights now..." he looked at me shamefully and the tips of his ears went red.

I struggled to process this information; the boy I had been dreaming about constantly for the past few nights had been watching me all along; no wonder I was having restless sleeps!

"I'm sorry," mumbled Ron, and he did look rather guilty, "I know it must freak you out and all but I just have to see you, I have to. I worry about you; I can't rest unless I know you're safe. I know it's still a silly excuse but I-"

He stopped speaking abruptly; I had thrown myself into his arms and rested my head against his warm chest; I could hear his heart beating loudly beneath his ribs and immediately felt content with the closeness between us. Ron's arms wrapped securely around me, and for a long pause we just sat there, enjoying each other's embrace. At one point, I felt Ron's lips touch the top of my head and a smile crept across my face.

"What did I do to deserve you eh?" Ron asked quietly; I moved my head so I could look up into his warm gentle eyes.

"What did _I_ do to deserve you?" I asked wonderously; and for the first time I reached out and stroked his beautiful face. Ron closed his eyes as he allowed my hand to explore every aspect of his handsome features. My smile grew wider; I couldn't believe that this wonderful person had chosen to be with me of all people; it was difficult to justify. As if he had read my mind, Ron's eyes flickered open and he looked at me with such intense emotion, it almost made me cry.

"I'll never want anyone else in the world but you," he told me seriously, then he glanced at my clock, "Blimey; looks about time for us to be getting a bit of shut eye I think," he kissed the top of my head again and then stood up off the bed.

"Please-do you have to go?" I begged quietly. Ron looked at me longingly.

"I don't want to leave you," he assured me softly.

"Then don't," I pleaded, "stay with me,"

Ron looked as though he was doing some quick thinking, then, on making a decision, he went and settled himself in the single armchair on the other side of the room.

"No," I gestured to the space next to me in the bed.

"Are - are you sure?" Ron asked nervously, "I mean we've not even been together for twenty- four hours, it might be a bit..."

"Please, I just want you to be next to me," I said gently, trying to tone down the enormous level of need I had for his presence.

Ron hesitated slightly then, on an encouraging nod from me, he climbed into the bed and lay down next to me.

"I'll have to be up at the crack of dawn now," he grumbled jokingly, I giggled and snuggled myself into his warm arms.

The sun shone weakly through the tint in my curtains, yet it was still enough to drag me back to consciousness. Glancing tiredly at my clock, I groaned loudly and then forced myself into a sitting position, rubbing my eyes as I did so.

"Your hair looks like a bloody haystack! But I quite like it that way."

I threw a pillow at him in reponse to his comment. Ron laughed.

"Good morning to you too!" he said cheerfully.

"How can you be in such a good mood?" I grumbled, still rubbing sleep dust out of my eyes.

"Me? Cause I've not felt this happy for a long time!" he chirped, bouncing over to the bed and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"Come on then lazybones! We don't wanna end up arriving late for school, especially after we missed a whole day of it yesterday!" he started rummaging through my draws, pulling out clothes for me to wear.

"Hey! Do you mind!" I squealed, jumping out of bed, "don't you know it's rude to go rummaging through a women's personal belongings!"

"Only now," said Ron, "mind you, my sister Ginny goes haywire if you so much as step into her room..."

"Yes well that's because boys have the tendency to stick their abnormally large noses in places where girls don't want them!" I said sternly, gathering up the clothes Ron had layed out for me and turning towards the bathroom.

"Y'know I've got a feeling you and my sister are gonna get along really well together," laughed Ron, as I stuck my tongue out at him and headed into the bathroom.

Sure enough, my hair _did_ look like a haystack. But after washing it, blowdrying it and then brushing it through thouroughly, I decided it looked considerably more decent. Changing quickly into the outfit Ron selected for me, which suprisingly looked rather nice, I took one last glance in the mirror and hurried back into my bedroom; Ron was sat on the end of my bed, and his face lit up when he saw me enter the room;

"You look beautiful," he said sincerely, causing me to blush and look down.

Ron stood up and gestured round my room, "It's nice your room, I've not seen it in the daylight before. I think it really ressembles you."

"You do?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah," said Ron, "especially the amount of books you have," he pointed to my enormous bookshelf, which Sirius had swiftly gone and bought after I'd told him how many books I would be bringing when we'd made arrangements for my coming to stay.

Ron looked at me and smiled. I walked quickly across the room and hugged him; he kissed my forehead.

"Awake now then?" he chuckled happily.

"Hmm just about," I smiled into his T-shirt, and it was then I noticed that it was a different T-shirt.

"You've changed."

"Course I have," said Ron, "I had to get changed into something different for school, otherwise there would be awkward questions to answer when we arrive there."

"I think there will probably be awkward questions anyway," I sighed, thinking about how everyone was going to behave when they saw Ron and me turn up together, but for some reason, it really didn't bother me, "so when did you leave to get new clothes?"

"Not long after you nodded off," Ron replied, "I wasn't gone long, besides you were well out of it," he smiled as though he knew something I didn't; I looked at him worriedly:

"Did I- did I say anything at all whilst I was sleeping?" I asked tentatively.

"Perhaps," mused Ron, and his smile grew wider.

"What was it?" I asked worriedly, I knew I had a tendency to talk in my sleep, and it was usually an awful lot of waffling about some book or other according to my highly eccentric mother.

"Well...," Ron's ears went pink again, "you said...you said that you loved me."

I gazed at him.

"I love you," I repeated earnestly; Ron smiled again and indicated that we should head down to get some breakfast.

"Where's Sirius?" I asked suddenly whilst we headed downstairs .

"Don't worry, he left quite a while before you woke up," replied Ron.

"Oh, I guess he's still trying to work out who's behind them awful killings," I said sadly, remembering Sirius's face the night Remus Lupin had died.

"I reckon they're gonna have a job catching them," said Ron quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I set about preparing us both some cereal.

"Well," said Ron, " for starters, it wasn't a load of your people who commited those murders."

I stared at him, my mouth completely agog.

"You mean it's someone who's a wizard!" I was astounded.

Ron nodded gravely, "I told you there was a war coming Hermione, and it looks like it might be heading this way faster than we thought..."

"Have you told the police?" I asked seriously.

"No," said Ron with equal seriousness, "there is absolutely no way the muggles can understand or stop this, this is something our Ministry of Magic are dealing with."

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" I said, bewildered as we sat down and began eating our cereal.

"Yep," said Ron thickly through a mouthful of muesli, "the Ministry of Magic's in charge of keeping the Wizarding population under control; no-one else is supposed to really know about us." he looked at me rather guiltily.

"But I know," I replied nervously, "does that mean you've breached some kind of law?"

"No," said Ron calmly, "there's a fair number of muggles who know about us cause a lot of half blood wizards marry them; it's just amongst- you know my bloodline we prefer muggles not to know..." he gazed moodily into his cereal bowl, clearly put out by his legacy's attitude.

"Hey," I said gently, leaning over and placing my hand on his, which was resting on the table, "it's not your fault people of your bloodline behave like that, what matters most is how _you_ choose to behave, and that, I certainly think, makes so much more difference." I smiled heartily.

Ron looked up and gave me a small smile in return, "you're a really smart girl you are Hermione," he said, holding onto my hand and stroking it softly, I felt my face fill with chagrin, and continued eating my cereal in silence, Ron did the same; our hands never breaking apart until we rose to put our bowls in the dishwasher, and headed outside into a chilly breeze.

"How did your car get here?" I asked astoundingly when I noticed it sat on the edge of the road.

"Brought it with me when I went to change into a set of new clothes," Ron grinned cheerfully, opening the passenger door for me and then preceding to the driver's side.

The journey to school was rather enjoyable: Ron told me all sorts of things about the Wizarding World, all of which I found fascinating.

"What? Wow! You really get your post from owls!"

"Yep, that's how most wizards communicate," said Ron, clearly amused by the reactions appearing across my face.

"That's amazing; I thought owls only came out at night! How come I've never seen one of them?"

"Cause they're usually trained to avoid flying in routes where muggles can see them; they're very clever creatures owls."

"Does your family have one?"

"Oh, yeah," replied Ron grumpily, "if you can call him an owl; we've got this one called Errol, and he's absolutely useless- always collapsing, even on lightweight journeys! I tell you, the number of times one of us has sat on him cause he's fainted onto one of the chairs..."

I stared at Ron slightly agog; his owl sounded completely past it , and yet he was talking about it so casually.

"Don't worry," he said assuringly, catching my worried expression, "he's had a good long life, and to be honest I think he'd be better off if he snuffed it sooner rather than later; he's quite literally on his last legs."

I did not say anything else for the rest of the journey; Ron's homelife sounded startingly different to that of my own, and it rather upset me.

The attitude at school was just as Ron and I predicted: the minute we turned into the parking lot, heads spun round in our direction, and mouths fell open in complete looks of shock.

"Oh no, everyone's staring at us!" I squeaked nervously.

"Just relax," soothed Ron, "It's simply my handsome physique- girls can't help but swoon when they see it!"

I scoffed loudly, "well then it looks like a lot of boys here must be having an urge to bat for the other side if that's the reason why everyone's gawping!"

Ron looked down, frowning at me; I couldn't resist the urge to stroke his frown lines etched between his eyes.

"Oh my god!" we both turned in the direction of the sudden outburst; Pavarti and Padma were stood near the entrance to the school, and by the looks on their faces, it was clear they were struggling to contain their apparent disbelief at the sight of me and Ron Weasley, although to be honest, I was subconsciously pinching myself everytime I looked at him and saw his gorgeous smile shining down at me: _I feel like the luckiest girl in the world _I sighed deeply; sad thing was, I honestly did not feel like I deserved it.

"Come on, wouldn't want you to be late for lessons now would we?" smiled Ron, putting his arm around my shoulders and gently steering me towards the main entrance where Padma and Pavarti were still gawping. I gave them a small wave but they continued to look like a pair of fish. _Well, what do you expect, for the last few weeks you and Ron have been making it clear that you hate each other's guts, _I sighed deeply. It was going to take a while, but to be honest, I really didn't care; because whenever I looked into the face of the person walking next to me, there was nothing I felt but pure happiness. 


	10. Chapter 10

**A Partner for Life**

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've been off track with this story for a while but I'm getting back into it and will do my best to update more regularly :-)**

Lessons that day felt like being caught up in a hurricane: hundreds of people firing questions at me about my suprising new boyfriend, yet when I was with him myself, I felt safe within the eye of the storm. Of course that was only during lunch and Biology, afterwhich I was forced back into the snake pit, quite unable to escape all the hissing comments that were being thrown in my face.

Ron was lucky enough to escape all this harrassment, as people were still too cautious to go anywhere near him. But, the minute I was freed from the way too personal comments being put upon me by none other than Parvati Patil, I charged into the parking lot, and the moment I saw him stood leaning by the side of his admittedly grubby looking Ford Anglia, I couldn't help but let an enormous smile spread across my face and hurry towards him as safely as I could across the forever wet tarmac.

"Hey," said Ron when I came to a slippery halt in front of him, "you appear to look as happy as I feel."

"That's because I am," I replied chirpily, reaching my hand out and cupping the side of his face; it felt nice to not have to restrain myself whenever I felt the urge to touch him. Ron seemed to enjoy the freedom too, and nuzzled his face into my palm.

"Come on," I said, "let's get out of this goldfish bowl, I hate the way everyone's been staring at us."

"Well in fairness, we _have_ been making it clear these last few weeks that we hate each other's guts," smiled Ron, heading over to the driver's side of the car while I clambered in the other.

We drove in silence for a while, I had no idea where we were going, but in all honesty I didn't care. As long as I was with Ron, nothing else seemed to matter. The way he looked at me; his face mirrored all the emotions that must clearly have show on mine whenever I looked at him, it was pure magic- quite literally! I had never felt happier. How could it be that the one person I could not stand, was the one man I simply could not resist!

We came to a halt at a field which brushed the edge of the road. Ron jumped out the driver's seat while I followed somewhat cautiously, as I had noticed a fair number of deathly looking rabbit holes dotted throughout the grassy carpet. Now was not the time to wind up breaking my ankle in one of them.

Ron laughed as he watched me eyeing the ground furtively while I made a slow but steady path towards him, "how long do you reckon I'll be standing here before you reach me?" he teased.

"Shut up! Do you want me to go falling down one of these rabbit holes,"

"Not really, I prefer your body in the shape that it is," he smiled; for some reason that comment made me flush, but I kept my focus on the uneven ground until I was right next to him.

"Fancy taking a stroll?" he said, taking my hand.

"Across a field spewn with rabbit holes and droppings? Actually I'd rather not,"

"Oh, well I wasn't exactly thinking of just wandering around a big field," replied Ron, "I know a much more luxorious spot, just beyond those trees," he pointed in the direction ahead.

"Ok then, but please could you hold onto me; I'm not joking about those rabbit holes!" I said seriously.

"No worries, you just make sure you're holding on tightly to me, and promise me you won't let go," Ron said sternly.

"Why the sudden solemness?" I asked curiously.

"Because I've just decided we're not walking," said Ron chirpily.

"Wha-we're not flying!" I said hysterically.

"Nope, but hold on tight!"

Before I had a chance to let on the sudden realisation of how we were about to travel, I felt a strange tightness engulf my entire body; it felt like I was being squeezed through a very narrow tube, losing all the air from my lungs. But just as I started to feel like I was suffocating, the sensation ended almost as soon as it started. I then noticed we now stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the most gorgeous lake I'd ever seen in my life.

"Wow," my mouth fell open at the sight before me, "this is so beautiful!"

"Is isn't it," agreed Ron, "you feeling alright in yourself? Apparition can take a lot out of y'eh when you travel with it for the first time."

"Yes I think I'm ok. Wish you'd given me some warning though!"

"Yeah I did, I told you to hold on tight," smiled Ron; I dragged my eyes away from the breathtaking view before us to look at him in all his equal beauty.

"You're so handsome," I sighed without thinking.

"Am I? Glad you think so," said Ron in a suprised voice, "this is a bit of a far cry from you calling me a buff git the other day."

"I know," I agreed, "but then I never thought I'd be telling you I loved you like I did this morning."

Ron smiled, "I liked it when you told me that- but did I tell you that I love you too?"

"Um no I-I don't think you did," I replied shyly.

"I love you," he then said, looking at me sincerely. My heart lit up.

"Really?"

"Of course I do you silly girl. I mean ok you rub me up the wrong way and you are completely obssessed with reading books and work, not to mention you're bloody bossy when you want to be," he flashed a small grin, "but how could I not love you?" his eyes gazed into mine.

"Oh Ron," there were tears in my eyes, "you are the most arrogant, buff, irritating, lazy, swarve git I've ever met," I let out a breath, "but I do love you too."

Ron enveloped me in his arms, and we stared out towards the oncoming sunset which was beginning to settle across the lake. But then something suddenly clicked in my head:

"Hang on, I am nowhere near as bossy as you just said!" I spurted indignantly, "I merely like to think of myself as an assertive individual."

"Well I don't think it was fair of you to call me lazy!" retorted Ron, "where do you think my muscles came from- thin air!"

"Wouldn't suprise me!" I snapped, removing myself from the warmth of his embrace, "I bet there's a spell you can use to tighten up those biceps."

"If only there was a spell which would stop you from being such a bossy madam!" replied Ron, "life would be so much more peaceful!"

"Oh what so now you're wishing that I would just shut up!" I challenged furiously, "well go on then! I'm sure there is one; get out your wand and cast a spell on me, then you can make me into your perfect kind of woman seeing as you can't seem to take me for what I am!"

"Despite how much this is tempting me," retaliated Ron, "there is no way in the world I would ever do that cause she wouldn't be the girl that I happen to love!" and with that he grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me towards him. But I was still putting up a fight; whacking him in the chest repeatedly until he firmly raised my chin up to face him and pressed his lips roughly against mine.

I don't know the exact moment when my fury turned into passion, but soon I was kissing him like there was no tomorrow. His lips felt so good against mine, our tongues fought for dominance in each other's mouths as our hands wrapped tightly round one another. I felt a lustful feeling overcoming me and wondered if my craving for kissing Ron would ever let up.

Eventually we had to come up for air, and rested our foreheads together. Sunset was blazing across the lake now, and we remained to watch the last of the day's light drain away before apparating back to the car.

* * *

Sirius noticed the change in me over the next couple of weeks. I was perkier, chattier and more enthusiastic about life. He certainly didn't show any signs of complaint, but I could tell he was trying to work out what had brought about this sudden change in my behaviour, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to take very long.

School had become more bearable now that the initial shock about me and Ron had begun to wear off. But we still attracted a lot of attention. We spent nearly every waking hour together (and every unwaking hour) laughing and arguing and finding out more about each other. Ron's world fascinated me, but at the same time it also terrified me. Whenever we were on the topic of the magical world, ground shifted beneath my feet; sometimes it felt that my boyfriend was so far away from me, it was like he was about to disappear.

* * *

On one of the rare days when Ron and I couldn't spend all of our time together, I was outside cleaning my truck when all of a sudden he appeared in the holding pen.

"Goodness Ronald! Could you try and act a little more mugglelike, I've got neighbours."

"There's no-one else around," said Ron absently, he jumped down from my truck, "blimey this thing's got in a bit of a state hasn't it?"

"Don't be disrespectful," I warned him, "this truck's not much older than your grubby Ford Anglia,"

"Yeah but at least my motor's in a bit better nick," he replied, "anyway, enough about how brilliant my car is, I've come over here to ask you something."

"Spit it out then," I teased.

"Would you like to come and visit my family tomorrow?" he asked calmly.

Panic set in, "meet your family? Oh but but what if they don't like me?"

Ron chuckled, "right so you're worried not that you'll be in a house full of pure blood wizards, but cause you think they won't approve of you?"

"Glad I amuse you," I said sourly, continuing to scrub at my truck.

"Hey," said Ron putting his hands on my shoulders and turning me to face him, "don't worry, they're gonna love you-perhaps nearly as much as I do, and that would be saying something."

I laughed and pulled him in for a hug. I never felt more content than when I was in his arms, but suddenly Ron stiffened and began to pull away.

"What is it?" I asked, looking up at his face; which appeared to be focused on something beyond my front drive.

"Complication," he said simply, before placing a tender kiss on my forehead and withdrawing from my arms, "I'll pick you up at ten tomorrow," and with that he Disapparated. I was getting good at remembering the words used in his world.

As I carried on with the task of cleaning my truck, I wondered what had gotten Ron so anxious. But then the answer came round the corner in the form of James and Harry Potter arriving in their blue van not two minutes after Ron had Apparated. I waved a greeting towards them afterwhich I then saw Sirius' police car cruising round the same corner; _appropriate timing._

"Hermione!" said James jubilantly as he climbed out of the van, "good to see you, I see you're taking good care of our redden'" he came and patted the side of my truck.

"I'm doing my best," I replied with a grin

"Sure you are," said James cheerfully, but then he fixed me with a firm stare and said, "let's hope you're doing your best to take care of yourself as well."

I didn't say anything, but I could guess what, or rather _who_ he was on about.

Harry then bounded over to greet me, breaking the tentative atmosphere between me and his dad, who headed over to see Sirius. I prayed he wouldn't tell him about me and Ron.

"Hey Hermione, how are you? Sorry we've come over at such short notice, but our flat screen's packed in and dad wanted to watch the football," he rolled his eyes.

"That's not a problem," I laughed, "my dad doesn't appear to mind," I gestured towards Sirius and James who were now giving each other fierce bear hugs.

"Can't quite tell who the adults are sometimes," smiled Harry, I agreed wholeheartedly and proceeded to lead him into the house; James' words still ringing in my ears.


End file.
